A rose that blooms in shadow
by King Sorrow
Summary: this is an alternate version of how team Rwby comes together, contains ladybug and maybe other parrings
1. Chapter 1

Deep inside one of the White fang's hide out located in a remote part of Remnant. A girl awoke in her quarters to the sound of light knocking on the door to her room. She sat up in bed and flung the thin scratchy blanket off of her, she was already dressed, wearing the uniform of the White fang. A simple white tunic with their symbol a red snarling wolf head with three slashes on it, draped over black tights, she had gotten dressed a few hours ago and decided to get a bit more sleep before her mission started.

She stood grabbing the final piece of the uniform off of the bare nightstand beside her bed, a grim mask that covered the top half of her face, she put it on as their was another knock on the door, this time louder then the last.

"Hold on I'm coming." she said her voice flat, as she pulled the black hood over her raven colored hair and black cat ears. She would rather wear her normal clothes but this mission was important and she was told she needed to show her support by wearing the uniform. She hadn't had to wear it since she had been a grunt. She sighed as she opened a weapon create by her bed and pulled out her weapon gambol shroud, and its sheath and placed it between her shoulder blades before heading to the door.

She pulled it open and her partner Adam, stood there, also dressed like her, she felt the corner of her lip pull up in a grin at the sight, she had never seen him out of his usual outfit. "oh, seeing you in that brings back memories, Blake." he said, his voice was light but rough, his right hand rested on his weapons Wilt and Blush, she knew them well, Wilt was a red bladed Japanese chokuto, and Blush was a rifle.

Blake rolled her eyes, even though she knew that he couldn't see her eyes behind the mask. "Shut up Adam," she said walking past him into the main hallway of the white fang barracks.

"I don't like this anymore then you do, but orders are orders." he said walking after her as she headed towards the double doors at the far end of the hallway that exited the barracks. She scoffed lightly but didn't say anything, she wasn't agitated by the fact that she had to wear the uniform, but by the fact that a new recruit would be joining her and Adam on this mission.

She hated when the higher ups wanted to pin a new member on them so they could judge how they did on the field. A new member meant that the mission would be even more stressful on her since she didn't know the person fighting beside her, or if they would be trustworthy enough if they got in a pinch.

"not eager about the new blood?" Adam said as if reading her mind as they reached the double doors. She nodded pushing one open and walked through into a large room, the central hub of this compound, from here you could reach any part of their base, people milled around and the noise level was a steady thrum of low voices.

"Yeah," she responded dully, she didn't need to say much to him, after being with him so long he understood her pretty well.

"This newbie's interesting, you'll like her." he said, "lets go, she's waiting outside." he added leading the way through the crowd to the front doors.

 _'So the newbie's a girl.'_ Blake thought, this was the first information on the newbie she had heard. "I doubt that I like her." she said following after Adam.

Adam smiled as he navigated through the crowd on his way to the front doors. He knew Blake was cold and reserved so he was very curious about how she would handle this new blood, besides he had been the one to set it up, partly to see how the two would react to each other and partly for other reasons. He grinned coyly beneath the mask as he reached the doors. Another member walking in held the door for them as they walked out, he nodded his head in passing.

Once outside it didn't take long to spot their new partner, the girl was bouncing nervously up and down. "There she is." He mumbled to Blake.

Blake looked around him and spotted her easily, she was dressed like them, but her hood was down showing short messy black and red hair, Blake's eyebrow raised curiously, unlike them, the girl was wearing a red hood.


	2. Chapter 2

"she doesn't smell like a faunus." Blake said warily as she eyed the small horns sticking out of the girls messy hair. Something about this girl seemed off to her. Adam smirked slightly, "She is a bit different." he said cryptically.

Blake opened her mouth to question what he meant but the girl spot them. "Oh hi!" she exclaimed waving at them excitedly and hurried to them. Blake sighed. _'Great she's bubbly.'_ she thought. This is going to be a very long mission.

"Hey Adam, we already met but I don't know you." The girl dragged out the word 'you' as she turned to Blake, her arms were swinging at her sides as she bounced slightly, the movement moved her hood, and Blake could see some kind of red rectangular weapon in a holster on the girls back. "I'm Blake." Blake said introducing herself.

"And I'm Ruby," she said "i was so excited on the mission that I couldn't sleep and I got hungry and was going to find the mess hall and eat but I got lost and wandered around until a nice person showed me the way..." she continued on talking but Blake blocked her out. _'how could she get lost going to the mess hall you just go straight from the main room.'_ Blake thought. _'why would they do this to me.'_ she watched as the girls mouth kept moving.

"...then I came out here like you told me to..." Ruby continued,

 _'And she's still talking.'_ Blake thought incredulously. Adam stepped forwards. "we need to move to the ospreys."

"oke-doky." Ruby said finally closing her mouth. Blake sighed in relief, mentally thanking Adam.

Adam walked past Ruby heading to the west side of the compound where the Ospreys where kept. As Ruby turned to follow Blake stepped forwards reaching for the girls hood. "You know your only suppose to wear the uniform." She said, her fingers brushing the cloth, in the blink of the eye the girl had spun around rose petals floated in the air as Ruby drew the weapon from behind her back, it stretched into a gun and she leveled it against Blake's forehead. Blake blinked, _'She's fast.'_

"Don't touch my hood." Ruby snapped, her voice was hard and angry. The chipper upbeat girl was gone. Blake's eyes narrowed, their was something different about this girl. "Right." Blake said drawing out the word as she took a step back. "Glad we got that covered." Ruby bubbled, holstering her gun as she turned around and started into a mix of walking and skipping as she followed Adam.

Blake's mouth twitched into a slight grin, the new girl was certainly interesting. _'Her semblance must be speed.'_ Blake thought as she followed after her partners. _'I didn't even see her draw her gun, but what was with those rose petals?'_ she thought. She caught herself staring at the smaller girl and shook her head.

"Do we need to go over the mission?" Adam asked, his voice made Blake look up. She knew the mission back and forward, she made a point to never go in blind. "Umm, maybe we should go over it again." she chuckled scratching her head.

"its a simple hit and grab run." Adam started and Blake spoke taking over, "The Schnee companies top Dustologist has developed a new dust crystal and is personally taking it to the head of the Schnee family himself a long with a number of guards. Our mission is to intercept the caravan and..." Ruby cut her off, "Steal the crystal!" she exclaimed excitedly and punched the air. Blake frowned.

"No, care to try another guess?" Adam said over his shoulder as they started walking up a steep hill.

"Um, we are...Um, going to attack them and um, send a, message?" Ruby guessed grasping at straws. "partially right, we are going to get that Dustologist." Adam said.

Blake grinned slightly, if they had the top Dustologist that would majorly slow down the Schnee dust company and give us a massive bargaining chip.

"I didn't know that the White fang were kidnappers." Ruby commented as they trudged up the grassy hill.

Blake looked away, the girl was right, a lot had changed since the new leader had took over the White Fang and lot of it she didn't always agree with the newer violent ways. "White Fang are whatever we need to be." Adam said as they reached the pentacle of the hill the wind picked up as a Osprey lowered from the early morning sky. the air from the osprey buffeted the grass and blew the air around the girls heads. "We will go over the mission some more on the way to the ambush sight!" Adam shouted over the sound of the engine as the osprey landed, its side bay doors slid open showing an empty cargo room.

Adam reached the Osprey and jumped into the cargo hold, his footsteps echoed through the hold and he turned and helped Ruby up into the hold. He offered his hand to Blake, she ignored him and jumped into the hold by herself.

"Lets go!" Adam yelled to the pilot. "It'll be a few hours before we make it to the ambush sight so you may as well settle in." he instructed the females as he sat and leaned against the cargo door after it had closed.

Ruby sat down cross legged and started to hum a strange song as the Osprey lifted off of the ground. Blake sighed, _'this is going to be a long flight.'_


	3. Chapter 3

Blake stared at the ceiling of the cargo bay counting the rivets in the metal for the fifth time, they only had around thirty minutes until they reached the ambush zone and the entire time they had been on the Osprey Ruby had been constantly moving around and humming that song, at first it had gotten on her nerves but she had started to like it.

"What is that song you keep humming?" Adam said, it was the first thing he had said since they had left. Ruby looked up, she had been picking at the hem of her hood. "its a song, my mother use to sing to me." she explained in a quiet voice.

"I'm curious, could you sing it?" Adam asked her. She shook her head and ducked her head. Blake found her self frowning, slightly disappointed, she had wanted to hear the song.

Ruby started singing, her voice was light and beautiful, it seemed to reach into Blake's soul.

"Red like roses fill my dreams and brings me to the place you rest...

White is cold and always yearning, burdened by a royal test

Black the beast descends from shadows!

Yellow beauty burns gold."

The last note of the song hung in the silence of the air. And Blake realized she had been holding her breath during the song. She let it out, her ragged breath breaking the silence. Ruby ducked her head again. "It's something like that, my mother could sing it a lot better then I could." She mumbled awkwardly.

Blake scoffed "I doubt that."

"I've never heard anyone sing like that." Adam stated agreeing with Blake. "Thanks." Ruby muttered pulling her hood lower over her head.

Adam sighed and stood up with a groan and stretched until his joints popped. "We will be landing soon, so here's the plan so listen up good." he told them. Ruby looked up pulling her hood back.

"when we get there Ruby will stay at the landing site while I stop the convoy. When the soldiers make their appearance to confront me. Me and Ruby will handle them while you Blake will get our new friend." he explained the plan to them.

"How is Ruby going to help you take out the soldiers from where we land?" Blake asked. "That's easy!" the hooded girl exclaimed jumping to her feet. She produced the red rectangle from the holster on her back. It extended and unfolded into a massive black and red scythe. Blake jumped slightly out of surprise as the tip of the scythe stabbed into the floor of the osprey.

"This is Crescent Rose, a high impact sniper scythe, my baby." She purred petting the metal. Blake smirked slightly at the girl. _'She's kind of adorable.'_ Blake thought then shook her head frowning. _'what am I thinking?'_ she thought.

"Sir, were landing now!" the pilot shouted from the front. "alright, everyone on their feet and ready. Once we land we have fifteen minutes to get into position. Then the convoy would reach the interception point." Adam ordered as they felt the osprey start to descend. Ruby returned crescent rose to its unreleased form and put it in its holster. Blake lifted herself off the floor and stretched.

This mission was different in so many ways. The white fang she had grew up in was gone now and in its place was this group that carried out violent acts. Maybe this was the right way to go about winning equality for faunus. She wasn't sure.

The osprey sat down with a slight bump that jostled them. Ruby waved her arms in circles comically as she regained her balance. "I am OK." Ruby stated regaining her balance. "Lets get this done." Adam stated as the cargo doors slid open with a mechanical groan.

"Lets go shoot some people." Ruby giggled and jumped out of the doors to the ground below.

"She's eager." Adam commented amused, Blake just shrugged and then they followed her.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hey guys King Sorrow here before I get on with the story I wanna thank you for reading this so far. Honestly I was about to stop writing it until all of you started following. Anyway if you have any questions or any ideas let me know. Oh and Baconator12 ill start paying more attention to my capitalization. And it will be a while before Weiss and Yang show up but they will. Be warned though this is about to get pretty rough. Well, enjoy._

Ruby, Blake, and Adam walked away from the Osprey as the engines where turned off. Blake looked around them, they where on top of some hill in a clearing that was surrounded by tall oak trees. Birds flew between branches singing their song in the sunlight.

Blake looked at Adam. "Are you sure doing a hit and grab mission in daylight is a good idea?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah, the roads that this convoy will be heading down have been shut down to all others but them." Adam explained to her. "Ruby, you see that tree right there?" Adam continued, pointing at a large oak that stood taller then the others around it.

Ruby looked up at it shielding her eyes from the sun and nodded. "Yeah I see it, what about it?" she asked curiously.

"From there you can see the road, that's going to be your shooting position, so get up there." he ordered. Ruby turned and stared at him unbelievably.

"How on earth do you expect me to get up in that thing?" she questioned. "There's no lower branches that I can reach."

Adam grinned walking to her and grabbed her by the back of her hood. "You wouldn't." Ruby said her voice grave, she seemed to be almost daring him. Blake grinned slightly as Adam lifted Ruby and flung her at the tree.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOUSTUPIDPERSONIDON'TLIKEYOUANYMORE!"

Ruby screamed as she flew through the air.

Adam tisked slightly, watching Ruby fly through the air. "I may have threw her a bit to low." He said with slight concern in his voice. "Will she be OK?" Blake asked watching the screaming girl fly.

Ruby flew through the air kicking her legs and waving her arms. She started falling the closer she got to the tree. _'He didn't even throw me hard enough!'_ she thought. As she reached the tree she stretched out her hand to the lowest branch. She grabbed it and her weight tugged on her arm making the thick bark of the branch bite into her palm. She cursed and grabbed the branch with her other hand as she swung back and forth.

"Stupid Adam." She grumbled pulling herself up on the branch. She straddled it and inched herself back towards the trunk and leaned against it.

"Can you see the road, you should be able to see a animal crossing sign, do you?" Adam called up to her. Ruby looked around, sure enough, down the hill she could see where the forest ended and a large field of wheat or something like it started, between them a black asphalt road cut between them.

She also spotted the yellow animal crossing sign. "Yeah I see it!" Ruby yelled down to him. He nodded. "Good, that's the ambush spot!" he told her. Ruby started laughing loudly.

Adam looked at Blake who shrugged. "What are you laughing about?" Adam questioned her. "Where faunus and the ambush site is marked with an animal crossing sign!" Ruby exclaimed through her laughter.

Blake chuckled while Adam face palmed, that wasn't the idea. "What ever, just make sure you don't shoot us when this starts." Adam said with a sigh.

"Yes sir." Ruby chuckled saluting him.

"Come on Blake we only have a few minutes left." He said leading the way into the trees.


	5. Chapter 5

King Sorrow here, Sorry it took so long to update this, I got switched to night shift so I couldn't find the time to sit in write, well here's Chapter 5 Please enjoy.

Ruby shifted her position on the tree branch, resting crescent rose on her knee to reduce the sway as she peered through the scope down at Adam who was standing in the middle of the road, just to the left of the animal crossing sign. She adjusted her scope to account for the wind speed. Leveling the cross hairs on his head, her finger brushing the trigger lightly. She blinked and let out a breath before moving the cross hair of of his head, she needed to concentrate on other things.

Her bullets would be stopped by the convoys guard's aura, it wouldn't kill them, but it would knock them out. She took a breath, waiting for the time till the ambush.

Adam stood on the empty road, one hand resting on Wilt and Blush. He moved his weight from leg to leg restlessly, he was slightly concerned. Blake was hidden a few yards ahead in the forest, and would do her job flawlessly, that wasn't his concern,

The girl with the sniper rifle most likely aimed at him at the moment is what worried him, he didn't one hundred percent trust the girl yet.

The sound of multiple engines reached his ears and he felt himself smile, _'I guess now will show her loyalty.'_ He thought sliding his feet apart and crouching, he grabbed wilt tightly in his hand.

The first truck, a large gray painted armored vehicle with a white snowflake on the hood came around the corner, the driver saw Adam and blared his horn, but instead of stopping he picked up speed barreling towards Adam.

Quickly Adam drew Wilt a red beam stretched across the distance and cut through the armor of the truck, flames and smoke poured out as the engine exploded, the truck swerved and flipped on its side, sparks shot out from under it as it slid towards Adam who only sheathed Wilt and stood up straight. The two trucks following the first slammed on their breaks as the first slid to a stop a few feet in front of Adam. For a moment the only sound was the flames crackling in the crashed trucks engine.

The drivers side door opened and a soldier, dressed in blue and gray armor climbed out onto the side of the truck, he swayed disoriented, as he stood.

Adam lifted his hand up, hoping that Ruby would get his meaning. The third trucks doors opened and soldiers spilled out of it, they all held the standard issued assault rifles. The back doors of the crashed truck fell open with a bang and more troops spilled out, they formed circle around him till he was surrounded. He counted twenty soldiers pointing guns at him. He looked up at the man standing on the truck in front of him. "you didn't bring enough people." Adam said letting his hand fall. "You cocky Bastard, kill..." the Solider never finished his sentence a shot rang out and the mans head jerked to the side and he fell off the truck.

The soldiers surrounding him jumped surprised and he took advantage to their confusion and fired Blush launching Wilt into the closest mans face with enough force to knock him out, he moved quickly grabbing Wilt and dispatching four soldiers before the others could react.

They where to closely packed together so as they fired trying to hit him they would hit their own men as he moved quickly, ducking and twisting through them, _'Eight, nine, ten.'_ He counted as he cut them down with Wilt or shot them with Blush.

Bullets slammed into his side knocking him off balance, his aura stopped them from piercing his body but now another soldier was moving to bash him in the face with the but of his rifle, but another shot rang out, knocking the solider off his feet.

Adam regained his balance and faced the remaining soldiers ready, to fight. He frowned. There was no one left, every one lay on the ground either writhing in pain or unconscious. "That was quick." he mumbled lifting his hand in a thumbs up jester so that Ruby would see. He could hear sounds of fighting coming from inside of the second truck, the one they had assumed that would hold the Dust and the Dustologist. It wouldn't take long for Blake to take out the people inside it.

Adam raised his hand and motioned for Ruby to come down and join him, he smiled to himself as he dropped his hand. "Time to see how loyal you girls are to the White Fang."

Blake had been hiding in the edge of the forest, once the fighting had begun and the convoys guards focus was all on Adam, she quickly and quietly left her hiding spot among the bushes, heading towards the second truck who's back doors where still shut. _'Our target must be in there.'_ she thought as ran silently across the black pavement. She reached the rear of the truck and leaned against the cool metal, drawing Gambol Shroud from her back, she had tied the ribbon to her wrist earlier so she just changed it to it's gun form.

She pulled her hood back a breeze blew across her making her hair move and her ears twitched as she listened for sounds within the truck, all she could hear was the sound of fighting from up ahead.

She took a breath preparing her self and grabbed the door, yanking it open, quickly assessing what was inside. There was was six guards, in between them against the back wall was a man crouched down wearing a white lab coat.

The guards lifted their rifles aiming at her, she jumped straight up leaving her semblance, a copy of herself to get blasted away as she grabbed the top of the truck with her hands and forced herself into a handstand to keep herself out of sight.

"Did we get her?" One of the guards questioned softly,

"Go see." Another ordered. A few seconds past, "T-There's nothing here!" He exclaimed.

Blake swung her body downward, her feet slammed into the guard's chest knocking the breath from him. She rode his body down to the ground and fired Gambol Shroud twice before the others could react taking out two more guards. One in the far back fired his rifle, Blake dropped to a crouch and felt the heat and wind from the bullet as it passed between her ears.

She narrowed her eyes and flung Gambol Shroud it slammed into the mans chest knocking him into the back wall, she yanked on the ribbon firing her weapon, the bullet hit the guard directly across the truck in the head knocking him out.

The final guard launched himself at her attempting to hit her with the butt of his gun. Using a bit of dust and her semblance she left a clone of ice that froze the mans hands and gun inside it. Blake karate chopped the struggling guard in the back of the neck knocking him out.

Finally she turned her attention to the man cowering in the corner. Blake walked towards him slowly, he was clutching some kind of box tightly in his arms.

"Go away you can't have it!" The scientist shouted at her. Blake walked closer to him.

"The White Fang want you."


	6. Chapter 6

King Sorrow here, thanks for being patient, I'm not to sure if you love this fanfiction or not but the I'll say that the steady income of people following it is a pretty good sign, I made this one a bit longer then the others but this is a key part in the story, I hope I did a good job, enjoy

Ruby saw Adam motion for her to come down. She returned Crimson Rose to its retracted state and placed it in its holster. _'Now I have to climb down, stupid Adam.'_ She cursed him in her head as she hugged the tree trunk and inched her way down, ignoring the bark that jabbed through her clothes and scratched her skin.

"I should have shot him in the ass for throwing me in this tree." she mumbled moving down another foot or two. "It wouldn't have killed him." she winced as a particularly sharp piece of bark jabbed her in her inner thigh. "I could have just said I missed my target and hit him, no one would know." She grumbled and dropped down the last three feet to the ground bellow, leaves cracked underneath her feet as she landed and dusted wood off of her clothes.

She looked through the trees for the path that the other two had gone down but she couldn't spot one, she shrugged and started walking. "I'll just make my own path."

Even with her speed semblance it took her twenty minutes and she had to turn around twice before she made it down on to the road, somehow she came out of the woods right in front of the ambush sight. She couldn't believe what she saw, "What the hell is this." she gasped her heart stopping in her chest. Blood ran thick across the black topped asphalt of the road mixing with the flaming gasoline from the destroyed cargo truck. the soldiers that she had helped knock out where now lying dead in the center of the mess, Adam was in the middle of carnage, his grim mask splattered with blood as he pulled Wilt from the throat of a soldier and wiped the blood from the blade.

Ruby tore her eyes away from the grotesque seen to see the other girl, Blake standing a short distant away holding her weapon in one hand and a small box in the other one, around her where six men on there knees, tied up and watching the scene before them. Five were dressed as soldiers, their masks removed. She could see the emotions of anger and sadness in their eyes but their face betrayed nothing, the sixth was wearing a white lab coat and had long black hair tied in a ponytail.

Ruby assumed that this was the Dustologist that they had come for. "Oh, so you've made it, I was starting to think you got lost." Adam said, Ruby's eyes flicked back to him. His voice was different, it usually was soft and sounded bored but now it held a tremor of something else.

"Are you OK?" He asked slightly amused. He sounded, excited. "What is this." Ruby asked looking at the horrific scene.

"Oh, this must be a surprise to you, I'm sorry. You knew that we were sending a message." Adam told her. Ruby stared at him lost for words, this wasn't happening, she only agreed to do this because there wouldn't be any killing.

"Since when did we kill." Blake finally spoke up, Ruby realized that Blake hadn't been let in on this part of the plan. "Since we underwent new management, this mission was to send a message, that the White Fang will no longer accept the treatment we have endured, no longer will we just speak out against the torment that our kind has endured at the hands of humans. We are sending them all a message that our peaceful protesting and that our non conflict ways are dead, they have made it so that we no longer have a choice. We will show them all that the White Fang will take what we want when we want it, and that we can also bite, a hell of a lot harder then they could ever!" His voice rose with each word, until his explanation became more like a well practiced speech. Ruby swallowed hard, This wasn't good, it was far worse then they had hoped.

"So the White Fang is turning over a new leaf." Blake stated cocking her head slightly, her ears twitched slightly. "And when were the higher ups going to let their soldiers know that?"

Adam looked at her as he sheathed Wilt. "Well, now." he said.

"What are we doing with these other soldiers?" Blake asked him.

Adam chuckled and walked towards her. "Three of them we're going to let go, someone needs to spread the message." Adam stated as if it was obvious. He stopped in front of the soldiers and stared at them.

"What about the other the last two?" Ruby spoke up, her heart was in her throat, she had a unsettling feeling about the answer. Adam laughed grabbing two soldiers closest to the scientists and dragged them away from the rest. "What the hell are you doing!" one of the Soldiers shouted as they where dragged over the bodies of the others. "Do you think you'll get away with this we'll hunt everyone of you down and kill you all, you Faunas bastards!" the other one screamed. Adam just chuckled as he dropped them face down in the center of the bodies.

"Get up on your knees." Adam ordered kicking them. The soldiers growled but sat up on their knees. Blood caked their faces, their eyes glared at Adam filled with hatred.

Adam turned and addressed Ruby and Blake. "You two are going to prove your loyalty to the new White Fang, by killing these two men." He chuckled.

Ruby felt her heart stop, _'No,no,no, I can't kill someone, the only reason I agreed to this was because I wouldn't have to kill.'_ She thought as panic began to set in her body began to shake.

"I have to prove my loyalty!" Blake yelled. "How dare you insinuate that I'm not loyal, I've been here longer then most commanders, I was raised in the White Fang and your questioning my loyalty!"

Adam raised his hands, "It's not my call, but you've never killed someone, the higher ups just want to assure that your with them." he explained.

"Of course I am!" she snapped, though her voice betrayed her, she was nervous.

"Come, kill him, or you can just leave the White Fang." He said. Ruby instantly felt hope, _'I can just leave, they would understand, I can't kill someone.'_ She thought excitedly, but as Adam was finishing his sentence he was placing his hands on Wilt and Blush. Ruby's heart plummeted. _'Who am I kidding, they wont let us just leave, we know to much now, they'll kill us.'_ she took a breath, she had no choice.

Blake looked over at Ruby, even though the girl was wearing the grim mask Blake could sense the emotions that were coming from her. _'I wonder if she's going to do it, I can't believe that this happening, but I don't have a choice.'_ Blake thought, but she took a step forward, her feet felt like they where made of lead, and every fiber of her being was screaming that this was wrong as she stepped over the bodies that lay in her path. She just stared at Adam, he had never steered her wrong before, maybe this was for the best. She swallowed and chose to follow him. She stepped over another body and slipped on blood but caught her balance.

She saw that Ruby was also walking towards the two soldiers and Adam. It seems she had made her choice.

Ruby stopped walking directly behind one of the kneeling soldiers just as Blake approached the other one. All Ruby could hear was the sound of her own heart beating rapidly in her ears and the man's ragged breath as she roboticly pulled Crimson Rose from it's sheath and it extend to it's gun mode. She moved it to the back of the man's head, the muzzle bumped the back of his head and the soldier stiffened.

"Wait." he said, the word didn't make sense to Ruby, the syllables where so far out of her current state of minds reach. "Wait," he said again, this time she understood it. "What." She managed to choke out, her throat was dry.

"If your going to kill me, your going to look in the eyes of the soldier that you murdered." the man snapped, his voice was solid and Ruby flinched from it. She didn't want this she didn't know how to cope with this. The man shifted slowly and turned around, the barrel of Crimson Rose tapped against his forehead as he stared up into her eyes, Ruby felt a tear trace down her cheek as she met the mans green eyed stare. "My name is Samuel Dirk, I have a wife, and a eight month old child." he stated and Ruby felt her heart shatter, _'what am I doing, I can't kill someone I can't be a murderer.'_ she thought and looked at Blake, she already had her weapon pressed to the back of the other soldiers head, she looked at Adam, he nodded reassuringly, his hands still on Wilt and Blush. She closed her eyes. _'Remember why your here, you have to make sacrifices, you don't have choice.'_ She told herself, she took a breath and opened her eyes. "I'm so Sorry." she whispered.

Blake stared at the back of the soldiers head trying to pull the trigger, she could hear the other soldier talking to Ruby but the words were senseless to her. If she was with the White Fang she could make a difference for her kind, she could help pull them out of this age of racism and hatred, she only had to pull the trigger.

Ruby's voice appeared in Blake's head. "Black, the beast descends from shadows." It sung, so soft and sweet.

Two gunshots rang out.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys King Sorrow here, I got some great reviews from that last chapter. Thanks so much for reading and enjoying this story. Oh, and if any of you like The Legend of Zelda, My friend knowlee has a fantastic fanfic called, Flames of Change, its long but I promise its worth the read so check it out if you want to. Well here is Chapter 7 enjoy.

Blake lay in her bed back in her room at the White Fang base. The room was dark beside the light from the lamp that sat on her nightstand, its glow stretched over her as she held her grim mask over her head staring at it. She heard the low hum of the air conditioner click on and cool air began pouring into her room. She had always thought that killing someone would have hurt her, tore out some piece of who she was but. Now, after she had done it, she felt nothing and that scared her more then anything. _'Just how far gone am I?'_ she wondered.

She thought back on what had happened. After Ruby and her had proven their loyalty they had taken the Dustologist and the dust crystal back to the airship with them, leaving the three surviving soldiers to pass on the message to the rest of Remnant. The ride back to the base had been eerily quiet, the antsy girl that had hummed sang, and fidgeted the whole way there was now gone. In her place was a small girl wrapped tightly in a red hood, she cried softly behind her mask. Blake hadn't seen the girl's tears or heard them, but she could sense them.

The rest of the day they had spent in debriefing and heard a speech from the new leader, he was a man who believed that they could elevate the faunus race to a level of respect and power and the White Fang was going to be the spear head.

Blake had long since pushed the test of loyalty from her mind by then, choosing to focus on other things, but the new girl had remained silent and moved through the day as if she was a zombie.

Blake blinked and sighed. _'I hope this didn't do something irreversible to the girl.'_ She thought. Even Blake could see that killing wasn't that girl's style. _'Why do I care, if she is weak enough for this to break her then she has no place here.'_ She thought harshly and rolled over on her side, the metal mattress springs creaking underneath her as she placed her mask beside the lamp on the bedside table then clicked the lamp off plunging the room into darkness. "I hope I made the right choice." she thought back on the test then pushed it from her mind getting comfortable in bed and drifted off to sleep, her mind invaded with thoughts of that girl and her song.

On the other side of the dorms Ruby sat nearly nude in the shower, when she had entered her room she had torn her clothes off. Even though there wasn't any she felt like she was covered in the soldier's blood. Now she sat with her knees to her chest, her cloak, that she held tightly around her, was heavy with the warm water that was cascading down over her, and the hood was pulled low over the mask that she had kept on.

 _'How could I do that?'_ she questioned herself, _'I killed him.'_ She clutched her head as she heard the man's voice in her head repeating his name in her head over and over. She felt the mask, and a scream poured from her mouth, why was she still wearing this cursed thing. She ripped it off her face breaking the band that held it on and hurled it away from her, it glanced of the edge of the shower with a thud, bounced off the wall and spun across the floor and into the corner.

 _'I should have never came here, he said I wouldn't have to kill anyone, he lied!'_ she thought savagely in her head. She could pull the plug on this and leave, but then killing him would have meaningless. _'What do I do?'_ she wondered distraught. A face appeared in her head. A girl with lilac eyes and long blonde wavy hair framing her head.

 _'Get up.'_ Ruby could hear her voice in her head. _'Your stronger than this. Get up and finish what you started.'_ She opened her eyes as the face faded from her mind. She stood shakily, wiping the tears and water from her face and turned the water off. Her sister was right. She had to finish this. But first she needed to get some sleep.

She stepped out of the shower and pulled her soaked hood off. Sniffing softly she spread it open over the shower curtain so it would dry. Then reached over to the towel rack, grabbing a plain white towel and dried her self off. She stared at the fogged over mirror for a moment, then hesitantly she wiped a spot clean and stared at her reflection. The pale skinned girl with wet hair and puffy eyes was her, but something was missing, she could see it in her own eyes. Something was gone.

She started to tear up again but shook her head. _'No more of that.'_ she told herself and hung the towel back on the rack and left the bathroom, the air conditioner had kicked on while she was in the bath room and now her room was cold, the cool air made goosebumps cover her skin and she hurried to her duffel bag since she hadn't unpacked yet and put on a pair of underwear and her white sweatpants covered with red roses and then donned a black tank top with a cute beowulf on it, choosing to forgo the bra then hurried to her bed and climbed beneath the covers.

Surprisingly she fell asleep quickly since she was emotionally and physically drained.


	8. Chapter 8

_Hey guys King Sorrow here, I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in so long, but with the holidays, work, writers block, laziness and some really good anime that I just had to watch. I was having trouble writing, but I'm done with Chapter 8, I worked hard, wrote more then any other chapter and to make up for not updating in so long, I put a twist in on this chapter that is going to knock your socks off. I hope you enjoy and I hope I did well on it. Well enjoy and let me know what you think I do love reading the comments. Ciao._

Blake snapped awake and sat up in bed, her body in a cold sweat. "What a nightmare, I guess I'm not as heartless as I thought I was." She muttered flopping back down on the mattress trying to get her heart rate down. The dream had been so real she could feel the trigger against her finger and the sound of the gun shout sounded over and over in her head. She tried to get back to sleep but it eluded her. Instead her mind was plagued with the events of the previous day. After tossing and turning for nearly an hour she sat up in bed. ' This is pointless, I'm not getting back to sleep.' She thought throwing the thin sheet back and stepped onto the floor.

She rummaged through her dresser and got dressed in a pair of black fitted jeans and a white tank top and pulled her boots on. She grabbed gambol shroud in its sheath and strapped it over her shoulder, before heading out her door. The hallway was empty, the lights had been dimmed. A moth that had found its way inside and was fluttering lazily around one of the lights. Her foot steps echoed around her in the hall as she walked through the dorm wing of their base.

She reached the door at the end and pulled it open entering into the main entrance room, unlike during the day where it was usually full of people and busy at night only four grunts where here acting as guards two of them guarded the door at the far end of the room where only high ranking members where allowed in. she had seen Adam take the Dustologist and the dust crystal in there when they had returned from the mission. The other two guards milled back and forth through out the room.

Blake ignored them as she headed towards the front door. None of the guards would bother her they weren't their to keep people from leaving. She reached the door and walked outside the night air was warmer then the air had been inside the complex.

"Look another one has came out for the night." A grunt standing beside the door on guard duty mumbled. Blake glanced at him but didn't comment, she headed west, the place she was going was her favorite thing about the White Fang base, and she was the only person that knew about it. It was located away from the base's grounds and way off into the forest.

It didn't take her long to leave the base's grounds and enter the forest. The ground of the forest was covered in a carpet of bright yellow leaves. She walked through the forest, the ground inclining steadily as she went, their wasn't an actual path that she followed through the trees but she had come this way so many times she reconized every tree that she passed.

The farther she walked the more the ground sloped upwards. Soon she was leaning forwards to keep herself from falling backwards. A tree had fallen since the last time she had been here. She placed her hands on the smooth trunk and vaulted her lithe body over it effortlessly. Her feet landed on the other side on the loose leaves and she lost her footing. Her heart jumped in her chest as she fell, her butt hit the ground hard and she banged her elbow against the fallen tree. "Ow, damn it, that was super graceful." She grumbled thankful that no one was around to see that. She got to her feet rubbing her elbow, her aura had protected her from scraping or bruising her elbow, which was good, Adam would have made fun of her if a tree had broken her arm.

She continued on up the hill, it was getting so steep that she had to hang onto the trees so she wouldn't fall backwards. A few more minutes of walking or climbing how ever you wanted to look at it and the ground leveled out she stood there catching her breath, the level patch of earth was only about two yards long then it dropped off into a bluff. This was her favorite place. From here she could see a massive lake below outlined in the bright orange and yellow topped trees and over head you could see the could see a breath taking view of millions of stars.

Movement caught her eye and her head snapped to the left, her hand going for Gambol shroud, she wasn't alone up here. Her heart rate, already high from the trek up here beat quicker as she switched into attack mode.

Before she pulled Gambol shroud from it's holster she saw who was up here. A lone figure sat on the edge of the cliff, wrapped in a red cloak. She relaxed recognizing the cloak, _'so this is the other person that guard mentioned.'_ Blake thought moving her hand from her weapon. She felt a little sad that her place had been found but she shrugged it off.

"I see you found my secret place." she said softly, hoping she didn't startle the girl so bad she fell of the bluff. Ruby's head snapped around to look at her, her black hair edged the hood of the cloak framing a pale round face stained with tears and silver eyes red from crying.

Blake blinked taken back a bit, this was the first time she had seen the girl with her mask off and it surprised her. "I-I'm so sorry." She stammered, "I didn't know this place was taken, I'll go." she started to stand.

"No it's fine you can stay." Blake said walking towards her. Ruby hesitated a bit then sat back down, her feet dangling off the side of the bluff into open air.

"I found this place a few days after I came to this base, I come out here when I need to think." Blake told her sitting on the side of the bluff beside the red cloaked girl. Ruby didn't look at her, she dried her eyes on her hood, but never looked away from the lake below that shown brightly with the reflection of the stars from above.

"I love the view." Ruby mumbled. "Whats the name of this lake?"

Blake looked at her and shrugged, "I don't think it has a known name, at least I haven't found anything on it. But I like to call it Mare sidera." Blake told her

Ruby looked at her. "Why?" she asked. Blake looked back at the lake. "It's Latin for sea of stars." She explained.

"Oh, Mare sidera." Ruby said softly, getting the pronunciation right. "it suits it."

Blake nodded and the girls sat in silence each in their own thoughts, just watching the calm surface of the lake. They stayed like that for a time, neither of them moving.

A strong wind blew across them billowing through Ruby's cloak, and blew her hood off her head, " I can't get that man's face out of my head." Ruby said suddenly. Blake glanced at her but didn't say anything as the girl continued. "He's in my head and my dreams, I keep hearing his voice, seeing the look in his eyes, and feeling myself pull that trigger." as she spoke her voice became more and more unstable. "Why did I pull the trigger!" she yelled out at the open expanse in front of her.

Blake looked away as Ruby started crying. She felt her stomach twist at her words as she realized she felt the same way about it. She shouldn't have fired that gun, she could have ran.

She stiffened as she felt Ruby lean against her, her arms wrapping around her. "I'm sorry." Ruby said as she felt Blake stiffen, " We barely know each other, you probably think that I'm a stupid child who can't control her emotions." she started to pull away. "No that's not it." Blake said quickly making Ruby pause in a weird position between hugging and not hugging her. "I've just never been..." Blake trailed off.

"You've never been hugged before?" Ruby asked incredulously. Blake shook her head, "i didn't know my parents, and I was raised in the White fang..." she stopped talking again, unsure as to why she was talking so much to this girl that she barely knew.

Ruby wrapped her arms around Blake and rested her head against her shoulder. "I know its weird but I latch onto people when I'm upset." Ruby explained. Blake shrugged trying to relax, she felt hot as if her body was on fire and heart beat was going crazy. She'd never felt this way before. They sat in quiet for a time, Blake felt like she was going crazy, part of her wanted to move away and another part of her wanted to get closer and she didn't know what to do. Blake tried to think of something to get her mind off the arms surrounding her, she looked around and spotted the small horns sticking out of Ruby's hair. "That reminds me." Blake said. "i have a question."

"What?" Ruby asked not moving.

"what are you exactly?" Blake asked curious. Ruby jerked away from Blake as if she was on fire. "What do you mean what am I?" she asked her eyes darted around wildly. "I'm a faunus just like you."

Blake arched an eyebrow at her reaction, "i know that, I was wondering what type." Blake explained.

"Oh, well that's kind of embarrassing." She said softly and settled back against Blake wrapping her arms around her again.

"Whats so embarrassing about it?" Blake asked.

"I'm a deer faunus, which is why I keep my horns shaved down." Ruby mumbled clearly uneasy about sharing.

Blake caught on quickly. _'So that's what Adam meant by his comment when I first met her.'_

"Ruby, only male deer faunus have horns." Blake said. She felt the arms tighten around her. "I know and I'm not a dude I swear, I'm just weird, and everyone makes fun of me for it.

"I won't make fun of you." Blake told her smiling slightly.

"Thanks." Ruby said and they continued on in silence.

Blake was beginning to get use to the being hugged thing. Ruby broke the silence.

"How are you dealing with killing someone so well?" Ruby asked her. Blake thought for a bit before answering. "I'm not dealing with it well, I'm just good at controlling my emotions." she said coolly. "I feel exactly the same way you do."

"That we shouldn't have killed them?" Ruby asked her softly. Blake nodded. "i do feel that way now, but we didn't have a choice, Adam would have killed us if we didn't show loyalty." Blake said.

"So it was kill or be killed." Ruby asked. She had thought that was what would have happened.

"Yeah." Blake said. Ruby felt her self relax a bit knowing that she really didn't have a choice.

"What have we gotten into?" she asked not expecting an answer. Blake stayed silent but put one arm around the younger girls shoulders. They stayed like that until the sun started to rise of the yellow trees making them look like they where on fire.

"It's morning already." Ruby mumbled watching as the sunlight chased the darkness away. Blake remembered a line from a book she had read some time ago. "Just as the light of the dawn cleanses the world of darkness it to erases the pain, leading us to a new day within the light." Blake quoted.

"Whats that from." Ruby asked, "A book a read once." she explained then continued. "Come on we need to head back."

the two stood and headed back to the base.

Back in her dorm room. Ruby stood in her bathroom in front of the mirror staring at her reflection. She had the shower on full and steam was starting to fill the room.

She felt better thanks to the talk with Blake, but she could see that something had changed in her eyes.

She shook her head and looked once more around the bathroom for cameras or listening devices, even though she knew their were none in the bathroom, she had already scanned it twice. And their was only three listening devices in her room. Thanks to the shower running no one would hear her. She watched herself in the mirror that was beginning to fog as she reached up to her head and pulled off the small antlers that where attached to her head my small but strong magnets that had been placed beneath her scalp.

Right now Ruby Scarlet the Deer Faunas was gone, in her place was Ruby Rose. She pressed her finger against the communication device that had been set into her throat, she heard a buzz in her ear telling her that she was connected.

"This is Agent Red checking in." she spoke


	9. Chapter 9

"Agent Red, it's been awhile we were starting to get worried." a male voice spoke in her ear. 'worried.' Ruby didn't believe that at all. "Sorry, after I joined they sent me on a mission, after that I was...distracted. I just now got a chance to report in." Ruby said leaning her hands on the marble counter top.

"There was a White Fang ambush on a Schnee convoy, we just got word of it this morning, were you involved in that?" The man asked her. Ruby tightened her hands into fists, her words caught in her throat as she pictured Samuel's face. She couldn't tell them what she had done.

"I was there, but I didn't kill anyone." She said softly. Her heart hammered in her chest as she waited for the man to reply.

"No matter things had to be done." he said indifferently. Ruby blinked unsure if he knew that she had killed a man or not. "Have you been able to fulfill your mission yet?" The man asked her. She shook her head, then realized that he couldn't see her do that.

"No, I haven't had time to do that yet." She informed him. The main reason she was here was to supply her outfit with the layout of this White Fang base. "It may take longer then we expected this base is fairly large." She Stated.

"Of course, but don't take any longer then you have to, the less your in there the better." he warned her. "Yeah, oh and Captain Gold." Ruby said chewing on her lip.

"Yes?" The voice said.

"My sister will probably realize that I'm gone soon, I want to leave a message for her with you." She explained. The voice was quiet for a second. "Agent Yellow shouldn't suspect us right off the bat, but it's probably a good idea for you to leave a message with me just in case." He said.

Half an hour later Ruby left her bathroom wrapped in a towel and her horns back in place. _'I wonder what Blake is up to.'_ Ruby thought as she dug through her duffel bag for an outfit. _'I hope she doesn't think I'm strange for hugging her like that last night.'_

Ruby pulled a black shirt with a Beowulf's face on it with red letters under it that read 'bite me' over her head careful not to snag it on her horns. She paused as she realized what she was thinking.

 _'Damn it, I can't think like that she's a member of the White Fang, the enemy.'_ She felt her heart sink a bit. She pulled on her pants, pushing all thoughts of Blake from her mind. She sat on the edge of her bed as she pulled her shoes on.

 _'she is cute though.'_ Ruby thought. "Damn it Ruby!" she shouted slapping the side of her head. _'Focus and don't think about her.'_ She thought and looked around for her cloak, she had worn it yesterday. She froze as it dawned on her, she had been wearing her hood yesterday when they had hit the Schnee convoy and left the witness, there was no doubt that he had described a White Fang member wearing a red hood killing one of his fellow soldiers.

 _'Great, now he's going to think I'm a killer, I'm not a killer I'm just a girl that wants to get into Beacon.'_ She thought. She wasn't going to wear it on missions anymore. She found it hanging on the door of her bathroom and put it on before heading out to go and get some breakfast. She opened the door to find Blake standing on the other side.

Ruby blinked surprised, "B-Blake what are you doing here?" she stammered mentally unprepared to see her standing there. _'Ok Ruby play It cool you can't get involved with her shes the enemy.'_ "A group of us are heading to town for breakfast, I wondered if you wanted to go." She asked by the sound of her voice she was trying very hard to sound indifferent.

"I didn't know there was a town close by." Ruby said bewildered, she had been brought in by a air ship but she hadn't seen a town. "Well, its not exactly close, it's near an hour away." Blake explained to her.

"Oh, um, why not just eat in the cafeteria?" Ruby asked. Blake gave her an amused look, "Trust me if you ever eat the breakfast here you would be willing to run all the way to the town."

"Is it that bad?" Ruby said finding herself laughing. Blake nodded. "its worse actually, so do you wanna come?"

"Yeah, id like to." She said closing her door behind her. _'Way to not get involved Ruby.'_ She told herself.


	10. Chapter 10

Two guards stood on the granite steps in front of a large mansion that sat on a massive estate. One guard wore orange armor and the other wore red. The early morning sun was rising over the estate shining light down on the immaculate lawn, covered with hedges that created an intricate maze on either side of the long drive way that led up to the mansion. The guard in orange shifted his weight slightly. "So." the guard stated looking over at the guard in red. "Do you ever wonder why were here?"

The guard in red sighed shifting the rifle in his hands softly and looked up in the sky. "Do you mean why were here on this earth like do..." The sound of an engine approaching cut him off.

"Is the Captain expecting anyone around now?" The guard in red asked, they could see a cloud of dust in the distance coming down the road. "how did they get past the main gate if he wasn't expecting them?" The orange one said with a shrug.

The red guard's radio cut on. "Don't let her in, use force if you need to." The Captain said and the radio cut off, he sounded tired.

"That explained a lot." The orange guard said switching his rifle to stun. The red one shrugged doing the same. "be careful who ever this is got past the watch at the gate." he warned.

By now the vehicle was in sight, a sleek black and yellow motorcycle was speeding towards them, the riders head was covered by a yellow helmet with a tinted visor. They didn't need to see her face to know who was on it.

"Shit, It's Agent yellow." The orange guard grumbled stepping down the steps as the bike rolled to a stop a yard away. Yang put down the kickstand and turned the bike off and got off. She was dressed in a yellow jumpsuit with black stripes. Ember Celia were around her wrists.

"Agent Yellow, you need to turn around and leave!" The red guard shouted as he and his partner stalked towards her with their weapons raised. Yang pulled her helmet off, her long blonde hair falling out of it. She turned to face the approaching guards her eyes where glowing red.

"Oh Fuck!" The red guard exclaimed, he had heard stories about when this agent's eyes turned red, he squeezed the trigger but it was to late, Yang was in front of him knocking the barrel of the gun away from her. The bullets punched harmlessly into the dirt.

She punched the guard in the stomach firing an explosive round into him knocking him into one of the pillars supporting the mansion. She shifted her stance and slammed both her fists into the other guard knocking him into the maze of hedges several yards away. Yang rolled her shoulders and popped her neck and sauntered up the steps. "Knock knock I'm coming in." she said punching the double doors, blasting them open, and walked inside.

She didn't bother looking around, she had been in this building multiple times she knew the layout, and she knew where the man she was looking for was. She walked quickly across the main floor heading towards the staircase that lead up to the second floor. 'This bastard was about to get whats coming to him.' she thought.

Matthew sat in his chair in his office looking out the back glass over the estate, his hands rested on the arms of his chair, he was dressed as usual in a black silk suit, his jet black hair was combed back on his head. He tapped his ring finger on his left hand slowly against the padded chair arm, it was something he always done when he was thinking, right now one of his agents were going to come though that door, and she was not happy, how she found out it was him so quickly was beyond him. He was Captain Gold, the head of an agency that was very careful about not leaking information.

The door behind him slammed open. He didn't turn around, he could see the reflection of the tall blonde standing behind him in the window, she stood their opening and closing her hands repetitively. "Ruby didn't come home last night." She said simply, but there was so much anger in the girls voice. "Agent Red is her own person maybe she didn't feel like coming home, why come in here expecting I did something." Matthew stated. Yang came around the large desk that was between them, Captain Gold started to rise out of his chair but Yang grabbed him by the collar of his suit coat and pushed him back in it.

"Yesterday was Thursday, we make cookies as a family on Thursday, Ruby never misses cookie Thursday!" Yang yelled in the mans face. "So you expect I had something to do with her not coming home?" Matthew said calmly.

"I know what you did, I got that piece of information!" Yang growled.

"I have no idea what you mean." Matthew said thinking she was bluffing. Yang lifted her boss out of his chair and slammed him against the large window, the glass cracked from the impact. "I talked you in to letting my sister join up for a short while, so she could kill some Grim, or help old ladies, even save kittens from trees. So it would look good on her so she could get in to Beacon Academy, not for you to send her into a White Fang encampment as a Spy!" Yang screamed.

Matthew sighed, "So much for having employees that wont give up secrets." he said reaching towards Yang's face, she swatted his hand away, "Don't fucking touch me, I know your semblance lets you control peoples emotions if you touch them, and I do not want to be calm!" she snapped then added, "She isn't a spy, she has no training at all! What the hell where you thinking!"

"She's doing just fine, they bought her story, they don't suspect a thing." he told her.

"you talked to her recently?" Yang asked, he nodded, "If you let me go I'll play the message that she left for you this morning."

Yang stared at him hard and let him go stepping back. Captain Gold straightened his suit and sat back in his chair and tapped on the keyboard bringing it up and played the message.

"See she's fine." Gold said sitting back in his chair and looking at yang, her eyes had changed back to normal which was a good sign. Yang was silent a moment, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I know my sister, she's not fine somethings wrong with her." She said softly.

"She'll make it through this." He reassured her. Yang looked at him intently. "Let me be on the team that goes in to retrieve her." She demanded. He nodded and chuckled "You sure know a lot about this for it to be top secret." he said.

"Anything will leak if you hit it hard enough." she told him walking towards the door. She paused and looked back at him. "If she doesn't make it back alive, no one will find your body." Yang said as she walked out.


	11. Chapter 11

_Yo, King Sorrow here, I've been having technical trouble with my laptop its acting pretty funky. Meaning its a piece of shit and I need a new one. (its OK I still love you.*pets keyboard*) sorry its so late getting this chapter done. I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter, and check out those favorites were almost to one hundred! thanks so much! Oh yeah if you guys haven't read it yet go check out The Ladybug Diary by ShowMeYourFury. Its fantastic. Well that's all hope you love the new chapter. Ciao_

The ride into town had been uneventful, she had sat quietly in the bed of a truck with a bunch of other grunts from the hide out, none of them where in uniform.

Ruby had leaned against the metal side of the bed looking out at the trees as they drove down a long and barely used road, it was in good condition besides the occasional pot hole that she swore the driver was hitting on purpose, she was short girl with rainbow colored hair and fox ears, she had the radio cranked up and was blaring classical music. Ruby had thought it weird but hadn't said anything. Several people were talking back in forth to one another, but since no one was talking to her she sat quietly. Blake hadn't said a word to her since the ride had started Ruby glanced over at her, her hair swirling around her head in the wind.

Blake was against the other side reading a book, Ruby could barely make out the cover. 'Ninjas of...something or another.' Her knees were blocking the rest of the title. Looking at her made Ruby remember the night before.

She felt heat rise to her cheeks and her ears burned. _'I can't believe I did that.'_ she thought reaching to pull her hood over her head out of habit but her hood was back in her room on the base. She felt a pang of longing go through her chest, she had never went a day with out her hood. But right now it was necessary. She ran her hand over her hair instead and tried to relax for the ride.

The drive took the better part of an hour and by the time they had reached the small town, she was sure it was half the size of Patch, her stomach had already eaten her liver, or that's what it felt like.

The truck pulled into a parking spot and the driver stopped the engine. The others started jumping out of the bed and headed off in different directions, some in groups, some not. Ruby vaulted over the side of the truck and landed on the asphalt that was in dire need of repair. She looked around unsure of where to go.

"I can show you a great diner." Blake said beside her. Ruby jumped slightly, she hadn't heard the other girl approach her. "I didn't mean to scare you." she said with a smirk. "What, me scared pshaw no way." Ruby said scratching her head and flashed Blake a large smile.

"Come on." Blake said walking around the truck Ruby followed behind her as she led the way down the street.

"How come everyone doesn't eat in the same place?" Ruby asked, falling in place beside the older girl.

"We don't all get along that's why." Blake said turning and walking down the side walk of a smaller street. "Oh." Ruby said sounding out the syllables so it sounded like 'Ooooooohhhhhh'.

As they walked down the back roads they passed by quite a few locals. They shy away from the two Faunus girls. Ruby glanced at Blake, she wasn't dressed in the White Fang uniform, just simply wearing a white t-shirt with a black vest opened in the front and black loose jeans.

"This has seen numerous White Fang's come through here so they just avoid any Faunus." Blake said as if she had read Ruby's mind.

"At least there not harassing us, that's good." Ruby mumbled remembering to stay in character. Blake didn't look at her, "Is it good?" she stated. "They fear us, they don't respect us."

Ruby raised her eyebrow, it seemed Blake didn't totally agree with the White Fang's new fear tactic. Ruby stored that information away for later but didn't say anything.

Her stomach roared breaking the silence and Ruby blushed as Blake looked at her with an amused grin on her face. "Stupid stomach." Ruby muttered punching it lightly in punishment. "The Diner is just around the corner, she said pointing ahead at where the back alley they were currently on ended. Ruby stepped over a hole in the concrete that was filled with water. "About last night." Ruby blurted out of no where, she hadn't even meant to but it had been on the back of her mind for awhile. Blake looked over at her raising an eyebrow.

"i just wanted..." Ruby rushed to say but Blake spoke over her. "It's Ok, it's...nice, to talk to someone, if you ever want to I'll be glad to." she said, her words were kind, but her voice sounded as if she was forcing the words out...no forcing was the wrong word. Ruby realized it was like she was searching for words she had never needed.

Ruby felt her heart slam in her chest and a smile crossed her lips. _'Everything's Ok, she didn't mind at all.'_ Ruby thought. _'NO! You can't get involved.'_ Ruby's inner voice yelled at her.

 _'But she's nice."_ Ruby thought defensively.

 _'Then why is she a member of the White Fang?'_

 _'She's not like them!"_

 _'Yes she is,'_

 _'No she's different!'_

 _'She's a murderer'_

That thought floored Ruby. She clinched her hands into fists and bit into her lip. "So am I." she whispered softly.

"Ruby?" Blake said softly. She looked up, not realizing that she had stopped walking, Blake was a few steps in front of her, she was half turned towards her, a questioning look on her face. The sun behind her burned out the back ground and all Ruby could see was her.

A few strands of hair blowing against her pale cheek. Her eyes were dark and cold, but she could see a small warmth that was hiding deep with in them. She was beautiful. And Ruby felt her heart shred.

"Aren't you hungry?" The dark girl said with a smile.

 _'This won't be be good.'_ Ruby's inner voice said but she was past hearing it.

 _'Fuck it.'_ Ruby thought and hurried after her.


	12. Chapter 12

Blake lead Ruby to a small diner that was tucked in between a colorful clothing boutique on one side and a old book store on the other. Ruby smiled, she could see why Blake liked this place. From the short time they had been together she had realized that the older girl had a deep fondness for books.

"Here we are, The Flavor's of Faunus Diner." Blake said waving at the diner with a flourish of her arms. Ruby stopped walking and stared at Blake, she couldn't be serious, She looked up at the sign, and sure enough in dim orange neon lights was the name 'Flavor's of Faunus'.

Ruby stopped the laughter that was bubbling inside her and quickly tried to think of how to play this, should she act offended? Blake didn't seem bothered at all in fact she had a smile on her face.

Ruby relaxed and let out the laughter she was holding in. "Holy shit, who would name a restaurant that?" she asked Blake, who joined in on the laughter.

"The owner is a bit...eccentric. But he had a good idea. He's bringing the different cooking style of Faunus to the public helping in forming relations between our races." Blake told her.

"So he's a Faunus also?" Ruby asked she hadn't realized that the Faunus had a different way of cooking but she couldn't ask about that.

"Nope, he's human."

"Wait, What!" Ruby said unbelieving.

Blake laughed again and Ruby couldn't help but thing she should do it more often. "You should see your face, but yes he's human, come on in and I'll tell you about it." She said holding the diner's door open. Ruby walked in and stood in the door way looking around. It was a warm homey place, the floors were hard wood and the walls she wasn't sure if they were actual wood or wood printed paneling. There was a long bar with padded stools in front of it along the far wall. Along the other walls were booths that were made to give to people sitting in them comfort and a feeling like no one else was around them. In the center of the room were round tables with chairs sitting around them.

The dinner was near half full, all she could see were Faunus sitting around eating and talking contently. But she did spot two humans near her age in the far corner. They looked like they had been traveling for sometime. One was a boy with black hair with purple highlights. He was wearing a green out fit, the girl sitting across from him had orange hair and was dressed in pink. They didn't seem to mind that they were in a diner filled with faunus. They were both looking over the menus. Ruby looked back at Blake who was still holding the door open, the black haired girls eyes jumped up to meet Ruby's, a faint blush was on her pale skin.

Ruby wondered why as she stepped out of the door way and let Blake walk inside the Diner. Blake led the way to a empty booth against the wall opposite of the humans.

The old leather creaked as Ruby slid into her seat and Blake sat silently across from her. "Sooo." Ruby said trying to think of a way to break the silence as they waited on a waitress.

Blake stared at her questioningly. "I get the feeling that you don't agree with the... _our_ groups methods." Ruby said and winced slightly as she watched Blake tense and close up. _'Great opening line Ruby you idiot.'_ She thought groaning inwardly. "I want all Faunas to be be treated as equal and I will do what ever it takes to make that happen." she told Ruby, her voice hard.

"I understand that but you can't honestly agree that the way to get that is by murder." Ruby stated. "I don't think you joined because you wanted to kill."

Blake was quiet a minute, trying to decide how much she could tell the girl. She could have been put here to test her loyalty. She wouldn't put that past the White Fang, but then again the other night made her think differently.

A waitress came by before she could speak. "Good morning my name is Amy and i'll be waitress." the blonde woman said not quite meeting either of their eyes as she placed a complementary cup of coffee in front of each of them.

"Good morning Amy." Ruby said cheerfully to the woman as she started adding a large amount of cream and sugar to her drink.

"Here are your menu's and I'll be back shortly to take your orders." She told them before darting off to see to someone else. Blake dropped a spoon full of sugar into her cup and slowly stirred it.

"I joined the White Fang at a very early age, after my parents had been killed for simply being a Faunus." Blake started staring into the swirling darkness of coffee. "But I never had any intentions on killing people to get what we wanted, what we deserved. It was different back then, We only protested and tried to show people that we were the same minus the obvious differences. But it didn't work not until we under went new leader ship. Maybe Adam's right maybe fear is the best way to get people to stop killing us for what we are." She stopped talking taking a sip of the bitter drink. She hadn't meant to say so much.

She watched ruby through her eyelashes. The girl's hand tightened into a fist so hard she could hear each knuckle pop. "He's wrong." She said softly. Blake lowered her cup onto her saucer with a small clink.

Ruby looked at her, her silver eyes bright. "If killing was the right way to go then why did shooting Samuel hurt so bad, ending his life took a part of me away that will never come back, and I know it did the same to you. This way is wrong!" Ruby said her voice barely being contained.

"What are we suppose to do leave? They'll track us down and kill us." Blake said taking another drink. Ruby leaned back in her seat debating. She rubbed her upper lip and leaned forwards.

"What if I had a way to get out, would you come with me?" She asked, the look in her eyes told Blake that she was being serious.

Blake arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Alright, do you have your orders ready?" Amy asked beside Blake making her jump slightly. She had been so into the conversation that she hadn't heard the woman approach. "Umm, pan seared salmon and a side of toast." She said quickly. It was what she always ordered.

"Ok then," she said writing it down in her yellow paper note pad. "And for you Miss?" she asked turning to Ruby who was flipping the menu back and forth quickly trying to find something. "Uhh...Ummm... I'll take...an omelet with a sideeeee of bacon, Oh, and.." she snapped her fingers and pointed at the waitress. "Some Chocolate chip cookies." she said with a grin.

Blake raised a eyebrow at the order but the waitress just nodded and jotted it down. "I'll be back shortly." she said and left.

Blake watched as Ruby drank from her coffee and made a face. "Ohh, hot!" she yelped bouncing in her seat as she sat the cup down and fanned her mouth with her other hand and poured more creamer in it.

"What did you mean by what you said?" Blake questioned her. Ruby looked up at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked her eyes darting back and forth.

The older girl narrowed her eyes. "You asked if you way out if I would go with you." she stated. Ruby just waved her hand in dismissal. " I wasn't serious it's just a question." Ruby said. Blake nodded stirring the small silver spoon into her drink. "To bad." she said softly.

"Oh My God Look At Those Pancakes!" A girl screeched across the room. Blake glanced over at the orange haired girl who was practically standing in her seat as a waitress brought her a plate stacked insanely high with pancakes.

"Sit down." The boy said his voice was calm and Blake wouldn't have heard him if it weren't for her sensitive hearing.

Blake and Ruby sat in quiet sipping their coffee each deep in thought until the waitress came with their food. "Oh my this is amazing." Ruby said in awe as she ate a piece of her omelet. Blake looked up from her fish.

"Have you never ate Faunus cooking before." Blake asked suspiciously. Ruby bit her lip. _'Shit what do I say ?'_ she thought then thinking quickly. "My mother died when I was young, and my father didn't cook and like I said I spent a long time hiding among humans." Ruby explained which wasn't a complete lie.

"Well enjoy." Blake said. Ruby nodded and continued eating. Once done and the waitress came for money Ruby handed over a card to an account that the organization she was working with had made for her. One cool thing about being a spy was they gave her a lot of money for on the job. When Blake reached for her wallet Ruby shook her head.

"Don't its on me." She told her with a smile. Blake looked flustered. "N-No, I got it." she tried but Ruby shook her head again. "No you've been kind ever since I got here, let me do this as thanks."

Blake sighed but relented, after the waitress brought her card back with a receipt they got up and left. Neither of them noticing the gray haired man in a green suit watching them through wired rim glasses over a news paper. He smiled as the door closed and tapped a finger against the cane leaning against his chair.


	13. Chapter 13

A few months later...

"There is absolutely no way that happened!" Blake exclaimed laughing as she walked around the pool table looking for a shot. Ruby was perched on the other end holding a pool cue in her hand. They where currently in the recreation room in the White Fang base, a place people could come and do whatever, there was a basketball court that doubled for tennis or other sports. Pool tables, foose ball, and even some video games. They were playing a game to see who would get the last pack of cupcakes that they had found in the cafeteria.

"There is no way that you made the cue ball go in some ones cup." Blake said as she leaned across the table to line up a shot.

"Hey, it was a once in a life time thing and it did happen believe it or not." Ruby said with a shrug watching as Blake took her shot and missed the cue ball sailed straight into the pocket.

Blake frowned as Ruby laughed. "Great shot." she said jumping off the table and fished the ball out of the pocket.

"I only started the other day." Blake said as an excuse for her bad playing. Ruby walked past Blake and set the white ball down on the green velvet and started to line up her shot she only had one solid left and then the eight ball. She smiled as an idea occurred to her, the two balls were side by side she could hit both and get them both in, but she had to get her last solid in first before the eight ball which would be nothing but luck.

Blake leaned on her pool cue as she watched the younger deer faunus contemplate her shot. It had been two months since the girl had came to this base and in that time the two had become close friends, out side of missions they spent most of their time together. Either in the base, walking through the surrounding forest and occasionally going to the nearby town.

Having a friend was new to her, she smiled as Ruby tensed and made the shot hitting both the balls and sent them spinning towards two different pockets. Blake leaned forwards watching intently, the balls fell in their pockets at the same time. Ruby jumped up and down in triumph.

"Ha, It's mine!" she exclaimed dropping the pool stick on the table and snacking the pack off the edge of the table.

"Hey, it is not they went in at the same time!" Blake explained abandoning her pool stick and it fell to the floor with a clatter. Smiling she grabbed Ruby's wrist.

"Did not!" Ruby giggled trying to pull her hand free from Blake's grip. Blake stepped closer to the girl and laughed. "Yes it did and you know it, you lost!"

"No, I won!" Ruby howled as she laughed uncontrollably while trying to keep hold of the prize. They moved forward and Blake lost her balance falling forward into Ruby and towards the pool table, on impulse Blake let go of Ruby's wrist and caught the edge of the table, her other hand wrapped around the girls waist putting them really close together.

The atmosphere instantly changed. Ruby stared into Blake's eyes, pinned between the pool table and Blake's body. Ruby's face grew hot as she was aware of every part of Blake's body that was touching her own. They stayed like that for a moment just staring into each others eyes.

"Umm." Ruby mumbled and Blake blinked realizing what was going on. "Oh sorry!" she said quickly backing away and letting Ruby up. Ruby stared at the floor between them feeling a mixture of feelings rise up inside of her, nervousness, anxiousness, and...disappointment? She frowned confused at the feeling.

"Sorry about that." Blake said again not meeting Ruby's eyes. "oh, um, It's cool." she said opening the cupcake she still had in her hands. It was a little smushed but all in all Ok. She tore it in half and handed a piece over to Blake. She smiled and took it from her. "Thanks." she said but was slowly backing away towards the door.

"There's, something I need to go do." she said hurridly and left the room.

Ruby stared at her half of cupcake in her hand. Ever since that night in the forest with Blake her feelings had been steadily growing towards the quiet darker girl. It was to confusing, she was here on a job, here to help stop the White Fang, and all she wanted was to get close to one girl. She bit her lip and walked towards the door.

She had a job to finish, it was nearly time for her to leave. She threw her half of the cupcake in the trash as she walked out the door.

Her job was fairly simple. She headed for the main elevator, pushing the call button. "I'm getting ready to add more." She said pressing the button in her throat and keeping her voice low. There wasn't a reply but she knew that he was listening. The elevator dinged signaling its arrival and the metal doors slid open.

Ruby walked in and pushed the button that would bring her down two levels deeper into the compound. There were seven levels in total. First floor was ground level where the lobby and dorms were, second was where the recreation room and cafeteria among other things were located. Third was for storage. Fourth was a research area full of dustologist's from the white fang. Fifth was a holding area, she hadn't been there yet, and the final two where off limits, she had zero access there, well, she knew the seventh was a meeting room of the leaders over this base. Her jaw tightened at that memory.

Her stomach lurched as the elevator started down to the research area. She hadn't finished mapping out that area yet.

Her job here was to relate a map of the base's layout to her company. The elevator was quiet as it took her farther down. It stopped and the doors slid open. Two men stood outside the doors, one had fox ears and the other had horns coming out his forehead. They were both dressed in lab coats.

"Brothers." Ruby said in greeting as she walked past the men, they merely nodded and stepped onto the elevator returning to their conversation. "That dust crystal he made is a mystery, I don't have a clue what its for..." Ruby overhead before the doors closed.

 _'They must be talking about that crystal we brought back on that first mission.'_ she thought, but that wasn't important to her. She walked through the research area until she had reached where she had stopped last time. She looked around making sure that she was alone and touched the communicator. "Picking up with last time." She said walking forwards. "hall turns left, two doors on the right side three on the left..." she started. She spent the next thirty minutes mapping it out quietly.

"That's it on this floor" she said removing her finger and turning around. At the end of the hall stood Adam, grinning at her from beneath his mask.

"Adam." she said tersely watching the man she had never liked him since she met him. "What you up to?" he asked still grinning.

"just feeling out the layout of the place." She said with a shrug.

"Come on," he said turning around "you have a mission."


	14. Chapter 14

Ruby followed Adam into the mission briefing room. Ruby closed the door behind her and looked around the room, it was empty besides from them.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Where is everyone." She asked cautiously, instantly every nerve was on high alert.

"Blake will be here shortly." he said taking a seat at the head of the small rectangular table in the center of the room. "Did you take care of it for us?" Adam asked flashing a smile at her that was nearly menacing. She felt her heart sink but she relaxed a bit.

"Yeah, Yeah It's all taken care of."

"Good I would hate to do go to the alternative."

His smile widened showing to her that he wouldn't mind at all. "No it's not a problem." She said ending the matter she forced herself to be normal, she skipped slightly to a seat at the end of the table and pulled it out before plopping down in it.

"So whats this mission?" she questioned him pushing the chair on to it's back legs. Adam's smile faded from his lips.

"Just wait for Blake." as soon as he said the words the door opened and Blake slipped in. Ruby tilted her head back looking at Blake upside down before looking at Adam.

"She's here now." she said stating the obvious. Blake avoided Ruby's eyes as she went and sat down across from her. _'Is she still embarrassed about earlier?'_ Ruby wondered as Blake kept her eyes focused on Adam. "Whats this mission about?" Blake asked him.

"A huntsman is poking around the town, asking the wrong questions." Adam said leaning back in his chair. Could Captain Gold have sent him? Ruby thought. No he wouldn't do that, would he?

"You two need to get rid of him before he finds out about our base." He said. Ruby paled slightly. _'Great more killing.'_ she thought bile rising in her stomach, so far she had managed not to kill another person.

"Is that it?" Blake asked. Ruby noticed that her voice was hardening. She was putting on a mask, so to speak, one that would her inner self safe. Ruby frowned slightly, sad that she had to do that but even sadder that she herself had to put one on.

 _'At least she knows who she is, I have so many masks I don't know what I want anymore.'_ her inner voice said. She shook her head ignoring it.

"Is there a problem Ruby?" Adam asked, a slight grin had returned to his face, he enjoyed this. She shook her head again.

"Nope, just had a random chill."

"Both of you go get ready. A truck is waiting in the garage."

Blake nodded and got up, she glanced at Ruby before leaving the room. _'What was that look?'_ Ruby thought. _'apologetic, concerned?'_

Ruby was leaned against the hood of the silver painted truck that was going to be their ride to the town. Ruby chewed on the inside of her lip deep in thought. Could Gold have sent this huntsman, and if so why? Or was he here for someone else, that was most likely it. Was she going to have to kill him. _'Maybe I can get him to leave if I tell him who I am and what's going on.'_

"Ruby, you in there?" Blake said snapping her out of her thoughts. She smiled at the older girl. "Yeah sorry I was just thinking. You ready to go?" She asked heading towards the passenger side door and pulled it open, the metal hinges creaked slightly as it swung open.

"Yeah I suppose we should go ahead and kill this guy." Blake stated showing to Ruby that her walls were up. This was the Blake that she didn't like.

Blake got into the truck and started the engine and started steering them out of the garrage that was connected to the above ground part of the complex. As the truck carried them away from it Blake broke the silence that was in the truck.

"A few months ago you asked me something." Blake said making Ruby look over at her puzzled. "I've asked you a lot of questions." she joked making Blake smile.

"This one I never answered."

"What was it?"

"You asked me if you had a way out of the White Fang would you go to."

Ruby felt her heart quicken, she remembered asking her that in the Many Taste's of Faunus Diner.

"What's your answer." Ruby asked looking at Blake.

She looked at Ruby for a moment, the look in her eyes shook Ruby to the core all of the girls walls were gone and she could see Blake's true self through her eyes.

"Take me with you." She said before looking back at the road.

"If I had a way I would." Ruby said leaning her head against the passenger door window trying to ignore the pain in her heart.

Blake clicked on the radio and the song 'The Part That Hurts The Most' by Thousand Foot Krutch filled the cabin.


	15. Chapter 15

Hello guys, the story is going to pick up now and I warn you these next three chapters are going to get rough, please leave comments on your thoughts. Enjoy.

Blake pulled up in an empty parking lot, put the truck in park and killed the engine. They had decided not to wear masks on this one so that the huntsman wouldn't spot them and either hide from them or attack them.

"Where do we start looking for this guy at?" Ruby asked as she climbed out of the truck and closed the door behind her with a bang.

"Not sure really I guess just ask around for a new guy whose asking about the White Fang, either way he should be easy to spot." Blake said as they walked around the front of the truck and got on the side walk.

"What makes you think that, we don't even have a clue what he looks like."

"Well, not many people carry weapons in this town that narrows it down, those that are will be members of the White Fang most likely and will be faunas like us, which narrows it down more. Also, if you have ever noticed Huntsmen and Huntresses stick out from others like a sore thumb. Kinda like main characters in an anime." Blake stated reasonably

"Oh, you like anime, I love anime I watch One Piece and Gunslinger Girl, Ohhh and..." Ruby started excitedly but Blake interrupted with an amused smile on her face.

"Let's have that conversation when we're not on a mission." she stated watching the red head blush cutely and scratch the back of her neck.

"I guess your right." Ruby chuckled.

Still smiling Blake spoke. "It'll be best if we split up and track this guy down." Ruby looked at her an emotion she couldn't name flickered across her face but she smiled and it was gone. "Yeah, I agree." She answered.

"You take the right half of the town I'll take the left, if you see him, don't engage just call me on my scroll and tail him till I meet up with you and I'll do the same." Blake issued her plan and Ruby nodded in agreement.

Blake turned and started to walk away.

"Blake." Ruby called making the dark haired girl turn around.

"Yes?"

"Be careful." Ruby said and Blake smiled. "You to." she said before running away.

Several hours later Ruby was leaning against a brick building. She was tired, her feet hurt, and she was getting more annoyed by the second.

She hadn't seen or heard anything of this Huntsman, and anyone she asked said they hadn't heard a thing, but she could tell that they were lying, they were being tight lipped about it and she couldn't blame them, they knew there was a white fang base close by and were probably hoping the huntsmen would come take care of it. She sighed and pushed off the wall and continued walking, hoping she could find this guy soon so she could get this over with, she didn't want to kill him but she had to.

 _'Maybe he's left the town."_ She thought to herself hopefully if he left they might have to scour the town longer but at least she wouldn't have to kill anyone else.

Her scroll buzzed in her back pocket. "Shit she found him." she mumbled to herself as her heart sank into her stomach. She fished her scroll out the icon was blank but she knew Blake's number. She tapped the screen turning it on and pressed it to her ear.

"Did you spot him?"

"No, nothing, I take it you haven't either."

"Nope, no anime main characters here."

Blake laughed at that making Ruby grin. "In all seriousness are you getting the cold shoulder from everyone also?" she questioned.

"Yeah no ones saying a word." Ruby said as she walked down an alleyway she hadn't been down yet.

"We may have to shake a few up if comes down to it."

"Lets hope not you know how I feel about this sort of thing."

"Yeah, don't worry I'll take care of the dirty work." Blake said jokingly. "Well lets get back to it." she added and the connection went dead. Ruby slid her phone in her back pocket and sighed.

"This day is going to be really long." she mumbled taking a step forwards. She felt a presence behind her but before she could react she felt a blade rest against her neck making her body freeze up but her heart slammed in her chest. _'Shit.'_ she thought she hadn't even noticed anyone was near her.

"Why is a little faunas girl looking for me?" the person behind her said, by the voice it was definitely a male, she couldn't place where his accent was from though, It had a weird twang to it she hadn't heard before.

Ruby swallowed trying to calm herself, her throat pressed against the cool metal of the blade.

"I'm here to warn you." Ruby said lightly making up her mind on what she wanted to do. "Leave here, don't look any farther into the White Fang base near here."

She felt him tense slightly. "So the rumors where true, there is one." He stated, from where his voice was coming from Ruby could tell that he was a lot taller than her.

"Yes, but you have to leave." Ruby urged him. The man chuckled. "No way deary, your going to lead me to that base, sense I'm guessing your a member of the White Fang." he pressed the blade against Ruby's throat, if it wasn't for her aura she would have been cut.

"I'm not a Faunus." Ruby said lowering her voice just in case.

"What?" the man said confused.

"The horns are fake, I'm an undercover agent working for Gold." She stated. He pulled the blade away from her a little but still kept it on her.

"I don't buy it." he growled.

"There on magneticly, give them a good pull." she told him. Hesitantly he reached up grabbing a tiny horn and gave it a pull popping it off.

"Well I'll be Damn." he muttered to himself, "You are human aren't you."

"Yes, and I'm on your side so please get this damn blade off my throat!" she snapped, the blade was driving her nerves crazy. Ever since getting into the White Fang she had started liking weapons less and less especially that close to her.

"Oh yeah, sure." he said moving the blade and stepped back, Ruby spun around quick enough to see him sliding the thin sword into a sheath on his hip, around the hilt was a revolver cylinder.

The man was much taller then her like she thought, he had long red hair that was pulled back in a ponytail he wore a black and blue suit. _'Weird outfit, but Blake was right he does look like he's from an anime.'_

"So you work for Gold." the man said. Ruby nodded holding out her hand for her horn. "Yeah, but we don't have time for small talk you got to go before they find you and kill you." she said trying to rush him along.

"I can take care of myself." He boasted handing back her horn and she put it back in place

"I don't care your impeding on my mission so you got to go!" she snapped at him. The man shrugged and started walking backwards.

"Ok, Ok, I'll leave, good luck taking out those animals." he said before disappearing around the corner, his last comment made Ruby's eye twitch slightly out of anger. But she sighed in relief as he left.

 _'Now we just have to keep looking for him until they decided to call off the search.'_ she thought proud of herself. Sure she would be doing a lot of walking but she saved someone's life.

She wandered up and down the streets for near thirty minutes just thinking, then her scroll rang. She stopped, pulling it out of her pocket and sat on the curb as she looked at the number, Blake again. She answered it.

"No anime guy here." Ruby said.

"I'm on his tail, he's heading out of the town so I can't wait for you. I"ll activate my beacon so you can find my scroll." Blake said and the line went dead.

Ruby stared at her scroll in horror, "No, no, no!" she chanted standing up and ran following the red dot on the map.

Thanks to her semblance Ruby got there quickly. She looked at her phone, "They should be right here." she mumbled turning the corner and froze.

Blake took a hit from the huntsman and staggered back as her body shimmered, her aura running out. The man stepped forwards and swung his sword down blood filled the air as Blake fell to the ground.

Ruby stared, eyes wide open, she felt numb staring at the body, her breath became erratic and she screamed so loud her voice cracked as she unfolded crescent rose and fired it behind her flying towards the man that was on her side.


	16. Chapter 16

Ruby sobbed as she sat on her knees, both hands clutching Crescent Rose tightly as her body shook, she lifted her head, tears streaming from her eyes as she watched the golden dust that was once a life slowly float through the air. _'From Dust we are made, to Dust we return.'_ She remembered someone saying a long time ago.

This wasn't the way it was suppose to happen, she leaned forwards pressing her forehead into the ground and screamed, voicing the pain she felt inside. If she had of killed the huntsmen when she first found him none of this would be happening right now.

"Ruby?" Blake's voice said softly from behind her. Ruby turned looking towards the older girl. She was laying on her back her hands laying at her side. Ruby left her weapon and scrambled across the concrete towards Blake, pain flared in Ruby's right shoulder as she placed her weight on her hand and her arm gave out making her fall she whimpered as she landed on her shoulder.

In her rage she hadn't felt it but she was starting to now, before she had killed the huntsman he had stabbed her through her shoulder. As Ruby looked at it she realized she was bleeding very badly, it ran down her arm and dripped off of her hand.

"Ruby are you there?" Blake asked her voice was weak and fear was starting to creep into it. Ignoring the burning pain in her shoulder Ruby made her way to Blake's side, blood was spreading out along asphalt under her.

"I'm right here Blake." Ruby said wrapping Blake's hand in her own it felt cold and clammy , "Your going to be OK, the White Fang are on their way." tears fell out of eyes as Blake looked at her.

"You kill him?" Blake asked already knowing the answer. Ruby nodded sniffing and Blake sighed, "I didn't want you to have to do that, your to good to have blood stained hands." Blake said softly. "But I messed up big time, he was stronger then I thought."

"Why didn't you run away if you knew he was stronger?" Ruby demanded fearful of her friends life. She looked around hoping to see the White Fang or anyone that could help but the streets were empty.

Blake lifted her hand and touched Ruby's cheek, smearing blood on it slightly. "I didn't want to run, I wanted to keep you safe."

Ruby felt more tears start to fall and all the confused emotions she felt towards Blake filled her until she couldn't stand it anymore. As the sound of airships filled the sky she leaned down and pressed her lips to Blake's, their was zero hesitation as Blake kissed her back.

In this moment Ruby didn't feel any pain, not from the wound in her shoulder, or in her heart from killing someone that was her ally, nor was Blake hurt and dying in front of her, all there was was her kissing the woman that she knew now she loved and her kissing her back. Till her lips grew still.

Ruby's eyes shot open as dread ran through her body, "Blake!" she shrieked, hands grabbed her and pulled her away as people surrounded Blake. Ruby struggled against the hands holding her. "Stay away from her!" She screamed in panic.

"Calm down Ruby it's just us!" Adam shouted grabbing Ruby's face and forcing her to look at him. Once she realized who it was she relaxed but stared as the medical personal was busy around Blake, one was trying to restart her heart as another was running a field IV while some where readying a stretcher.

"This is all my fault." Ruby sobbed leaning into Adam, he wrapped one arm around the girl showing sympathy, Ruby didn't care that this man was the one holding her it didn't matter, she just needed someone to hold her together.

"It'll be OK, Blake isn't going to die that easily." Adam stated. _'I hope.'._ It didn't look good for his old partner.


	17. Chapter 17

The stark white infirmary was so loud even if the only sounds came from the steady beeping of the heart monitor that was attached to the girl that lay in the bed and from the constant rasp of the ventilator. These sounds where like screams to the red haired girl that sat in the only chair beside the infirmary bed.

Ruby was dressed in hospital gown as well, her shoulder was wrapped in a tight bandage. She stared intently at the face of the older girl she looked pale and strange, Ruby didn't like seeing the breathing tube in Blake's mouth.

Ruby bit the knuckle of her index finger as her right leg bounced up and down anxiously. Blake had made it through surgery fine, the blade of the huntsman's sword had slid between her ribs and punctured a lung. It would take some time for her to recover but she would come out of it perfectly fine. But now all she could hear from the instruments that were keeping the girl she loved alive was this is your fault.

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut, biting harder on her knuckle until she tasted copper in her mouth as she tried to block out the loudness of the room. Slowly the noise died into nothingness as she focused on the pain in her finger and in her shoulder.

 _"You did this."_

Ruby's eyes snapped open and all the noise returned at their normal volume. She pulled her teeth marked finger from her hand and looked around her, her heart pounding in her chest. The room was empty beside the two of them. But that voice sounded so real, and so familiar.

Ruby's lips trembled slightly before she spoke aloud to the empty room, "W-Who are you?" she stared around the room waiting for a reply but none came. She chuckled nervously. _'Of course, I'm just tired and hearing things.'_ She thought and leaned back in the chair relaxing in it.

 _"You know who I am."_

Ruby bolted up right in the chair, her hands gripping the padded arm chairs so tight that her nails almost tore into them. "No, t-that's not possible!" she gasped, her breathing and heart rate becoming erratic. _'He's dead, he's dead, this is just in my head.'_ She thought as she began smacking the heel of her palm against her forehead.

 _"I'm right behind you, Ruby."_

Ruby's eyes widened fearfully and her blood froze in her veins. She could feel him standing right behind her, could feel his steady breath on the top of her head but she couldn't move.

 _"Everything that happened is your fault."_

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head not wanting to hear this.

 _"You killed me."_

"I didn't have a choice!"

 _"There is always a choice."_

"Adam would have killed me!"

 _"So I died because you didn't want to?"_

"If I killed you then I could help save so many more!"

 _"Like you saved that huntsman?"_

"But he nearly killed Blake!"

 _"He wouldn't have finished her off, he would have left."_

"You don't know that!"

 _"You killed him for hurting your enemy."_

"Blake isn't my enemy she's different."

 _"Your just like them."_

Ruby's eyes snapped open and she gritted her teeth as tear drops fell into her lap, she hadn't realized that she was crying.

"I am not." she sobbed softly.

 _"YOU ARE!"_ The voice shouted and a hand grabbed her unhurt shoulder tightly. Ruby twisted around, half getting out the chair.

 **"I AM NOT!"** She roared into Adam's face. He cocked his head to the side as Ruby blinked confused and looked around.

"Are you OK?" he asked her concerned. Ruby didn't answer, her face paler than Blake's as sweat and tears poured down her face and she gasped for breath.

"Are you alright?" he asked again. This time her eyes focused on his half mask and nodded, "Yeah, I'm just tired." She said running her hand through her hair.

"Well come on, its been a long night, I'll take you to your room." he stated.

Ruby looked back to where Blake lay in the bed. "What if she wakes up?" she asked wanting to stay at her side.

Adam smiled lightly. "Someone will come get you, I promise." he said helping her out of the chair, she didn't fight him, she clung to him as she walked beside him, her body felt drained a long with her emotions and mentality, especially after whatever that was that had just happened.

She didn't pay much attention as he lead her down hallways and into a elevator after that they walked a bit more before it dawned on Ruby, There wasn't any elevators to take to her room. She focused enough as they stopped to recognize the black painted door in front of her. Fear flooded into her forcing her tired body awake, _"Why here!"_ She didn't want to be near here.

"Wait!" she yelled, but Adam had the door open and slung her inside. She stumbled in but was off balance. She heard something whistling through the air coming towards her head before she could react a base ball bat smashed into her head and she fell to the ground, her aura fizzling out.

She groaned her head ringing. Her aura had protected the most of it, but her vision was fading as she looked up at the men standing over her.

Adam looked down at her his hands in his pockets and a angry sneer on his face.

"Adam, I'm sorry, Please don't do this to me again!" she pleaded fearfully. But his foot smashed into her face and darkness over took her.


	18. Chapter 18

"Get her up." Adam ordered walking deeper into the room, he ran his hand over his mouth as he watched the two Grunts grab Ruby and pulled her up between the two of them, her head hung limply to the side. Adam motioned to the iron rack that was in the middle of the room, chains and manacles hung from them, the Grunts dragged her over to them and clamped them down around her thin wrists and ankles and let her hang.

"You can go." Adam dismissed them, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at Ruby, his boot print marked the side of her face, the skin over her right eye was split and bleeding. He rubbed his jaw slowly, gathering his thoughts.

He walked slowly over to the table that was nearby, it was covered in surgical instruments and several other tools that weren't used in surgery's. He picked up a small white bottle and walked back to Ruby opening it as he went.

He waved it under her nose letting her breath it in and she started to come to. She looked around bleary eyed as she took in her surroundings.

"whats going on?" she mumbled slurring her words as she pulled at the manacles holding her wrists and legs and began to panic. "Adam please, I don't understand." She said staring at the grim mask covering his eyes. He grimaced as he watched her struggle.

"You don't think we don't know what you did?" he growled angrily.

Her eyes grew wide and she stopped moving. "I don't know what you mean." She blurted out feinting dumb.

Adam grabbed her horns and pulled them off tossing them on the table. "You know exactly what I'm talking about!" he growled at her.

"I've been feeding the ones that sent me false information just like you asked, I promise." she pleaded as he watched her.

"You let that man go." He stated. Ruby realized what was going on, _'They were watching us, that's how they got to Blake so fast.'_

"That's not why I let him go, I just didn't want to kill anymore!" she yelled as she began to cry.

"You disobeyed a direct order. And got Blake almost killed." he snapped at her as he walked to the table again and picked up a scalpel. Her face grew pale as she watched him. "It looks like you need more conditioning."

fear gripped her throat as she felt that pain on her back again. He smiled as he watched her face and he dropped the scalpel back on the table.

"Don't worry, I won't be doing it." he told her watching her relax slightly. Ruby could hear footsteps from behind her, but the chains prevented her from looking to see who it was.

"We are going to have some fun dolly." a man said walking past her, he was older than Adam, maybe in his late thirty's, he wore a long white lab coat over his other clothes and had red hair that was slicked back over his head, a pair of fox ears topped his head.

He smiled at her as he pushed a pair of wire framed glasses up the bridge of his nose. "This is Dr. Bob." Adam introduced the man, despite the situation Ruby found her self smiling at that.

"Go ahead and laugh, once I'm finished here, you'll never laugh again." Dr. Bob chuckled smiling widely at her.

Ruby swallowed and tried to put on a brave face, if Adam wasn't the one doing it, it couldn't be to bad. She figured. "I'm sure I can handle it." she grinned nervously at him. Adam sighed slowly as the Dr. just smiled wider.

"I have an interesting semblance, one that helps a lot in surgery." he told her as he pulled the sleeve on his left arm back. He placed his right index finger on his wrist, he slowly ran his finger across his wrist, as he finished his hand fell from his arm and he caught it with his other hand.

Ruby stared in horror as the doctor tossed his hand up and down. "As you can see, there is no blood." he stated holding up the severed hand and his wrist, not even a drop of blood was flowing from the cut off veins. "Also, I can still work the hand." he said moving the fingers on the severed hand.

"That's..." Ruby was at a loss for words, she was horrified and slightly amazed. Dr. Bob replaced his hand and it healed up completely, "The best thing is that all the pain is there, and no worry about blood loss or even death."

Ruby paled realizing where this was going. "your not going to do that are you." Ruby asked terrified. "Lets remove her clothes and get this started." Dr. Bob stated grabbing a scalpel. "No!" Ruby screamed pulling hard at the manacles.

"Shh, it's OK Dolly." he said rubbing the back of his hand against her cheek, she tried to jerk away from him. "No no, don't do that." he said soothingly as he placed the scalpel against her throat making her freeze,

Her heart beat froze as he moved the blade down her throat but didn't cut her. "Do you know any songs?" he asked as he started to cut into the fabric of her shirt collar.

 **AN/ I found a song that fits best to the up coming scene, Happy Song by Bring me the Horizon.**

She shook her head as he cut more of the fabric. She bit her lip trying to steady her shaking her body. "Sing a song for me and I'll go easy on you." Dr. Bob chuckled as he cut through the rest of her shirt exposing her bra and pale white skin. He started to cut through the sleeves as Adam stood back watching them.

She squeezed her eyes shut, she didn't want to feel this embarrassment again.

"Sing!" Dr. Bob screamed in her face.

"Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest." she started her voice shaky. Dr. Bob grinned and cut through the rest of the cloth and pulled her shirt off. "Oh this is a piece of art!" he exclaimed looking over her body as he walked around her.

"Oh Adam, is this the work you told me you did?" He asked, staring at the countless angry red scars that marred the skin of her back. "Sloppy work."

Adam shrugged but said nothing.

Dr. Bob ran his fingertips down her spine making tears spring from Ruby's eyes. "Don't worry, I would never leave a mark on you." he whispered in her ear and cut through the straps of her bra letting it fall to the ground.

Adam cleared his throat. "I have busness to see to, take as long as you like Doctor." He stated heading to the door.

"Your the boss." the Doctor said distracted as Adam left slamming the door shut behind him. "Now that we're alone, please continue your beautiful song." He said beginning to cut through her pants.

"White is cold and always yearning burdened by a royal test." she sang through through the tears as he removed the last of her clothes.

"Black the beast descends from shadows, yellow beauty burns...Gold." the last note of the song hung in the room as the chains clanked from the shivering of her body.

"I love that song, I want you to sing it a lot during our time together, Dolly." he smiled walking back around in front of her. "Please don't." Ruby begged, embarrassment burning her skin, she wanted to hide, she wanted to leave."

"Sorry, you did this to yourself." Dr. Bob told her slowly running a finger from her collarbone, down between her breasts and to her navel. Ruby tensed waiting for her skin to split open, but nothing happened.

"I need to ask. What do you want?" He questioned her. She stared at him fearful and confused.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you want, in this moment?"

"I want to serve the White Fang without fail." she told him.

He sighed and shook his head before running his finger down her shoulder quickly. Her scream filled the air as her arm fell off her shoulder, it was held up by the chain and her body sagged to the side putting pressure on her other side.

She had never felt pain like this before


	19. Chapter 19

_**Sorry i took so long in writing this chapter i had a lot of trouble with my internet and a few emotional/ mental problems. And sorry if it seems rushed. I hope you enjoy comment what you think please, it'll help motivate me for the next chapter.**_

Ruby shivered in the cold air of the dark room, but she could feel sweat rolling off of her body. The doctor had left long ago, being done with her for the day. So now she was alone in the quiet, her throat was raw from hours of singing and screaming. Her eyes burned she didn't have any tears left to cry, her body was intact, but he had removed her arms, legs, hands, feet, and cut into her she could still feel the ghost of pain drifting over her body.

"Someone help me..." she whispered to the darkness around her, her voice cracked and breaking.

"No one's coming to help you." that familure voice said from the darkness. Ruby looked up she could see Samuel standing there. She let her head fall back down.

"It's you again." she mumbled.

"You don't seem happy to see me." Samuel stated walking around her.

"Seeing you means i'm losing my mind." she said closing her eyes, she wanted to go to sleep. He chuckled slightly, she could hear him walking around. Picking stuff up and looking at it. "You've got it wrong." he told her.

"What do you mean?" she asked confused.

"Your seeing me because your brain is trying to stay attached to reality. It's when you look for me and i'm not their is when you've lost your mind." He explained to her.

"That makes no sense." Ruby grumbled as she started to feel herself fall asleep

"Let me ask you something...what do you want?"

Ruby's eyes snapped open as pain burned at her thigh. She screamed and thrashed her body but the chains held her in place, the manacles biting into her skin.

"Oh good your awake now." Dr. Bob said happily as he removed her ankle bringing forth another gutteral scream and he backed away holding her leg.

"I hope we have more of break through in this sesion." he stated running his hands over her skin. Nausea rose in her stomach and she kicked out with the leg he was holding and her ankle jabbed into his crotch.

"Dolly that wasn't very nice." he tisked. "that would have hurt if i hadn't have removed those long ago, why do you think i haven't done other things."

"Your sick." Ruby snapped as he placed her leg bac onto the rest o her thigh and ankle making the pain vanish. The doctor nodded and shrugged as he stood up. "Yeah but enough about me lets talk about you."

He leaned in close, she could feel his breath, hot and moist against her skin making her flesh crawl. "What do you want?" he asked.

Ruby squeezed her eyes closed, if she answered wrong he'd do something horrible to her.

"I want to go home." she said quickly.

"Uh huh." he said nodding to himself. She slowly opened her eyes wondering if she had answered correctly.

"Nope." Dr. Bob chuckled. "Now sing for me!" he shouted an evil gleam entering his eyes. She opened her mouth and started to sing.

"One life is not a long time when you're waiting for a small sign."

her voice was cracked and wavering as the doctor placed his finger over her heart and slowly pulled down wards splitting the skin. She screamed the next line.

"Patience is hard to find shadows seem to fill your life!"

Tears spilt down her face as he made a horizontal line over and under the first incision making a capital I on her skin.

"Don't be disappointed. Don't let your heart break. Don't spend another minute in this way. It's okay!"

he peeled the skin apart showing her rib cage, he was so close he could hear her heart beat hammering behind the bone, and he began to cut through them drawing another scream from her.

"Dry your eyes now, baby broken wings won't hold you down You'll take flight soon baby you'll be lifted up and you'll be there."

he gently grabbed her heart making Ruby gasp. The feeling of having your heart held couldn't be described, only felt. He cut away the aterys holding it and pulled it out.

"Look at how beautiful it is." he said holding up for Ruby to see. Her mouth opened to scream but no sound came out. This couldn't be happening it had to be a nightmare.

"Here, i'll let you hold it." he said pulling the pin from the manacle and let her arm fall free. She was to spent from the pain to hold it up on her own. So he grabbed her hand and placed her heart in it.

She stared at it beating in her own hand. She was looking at what was filled with all her panic and fear. _'I could crush it, it'll all be over.'_ The thought popped in her head.

"You could end all this now if you crushed that." Dr. Bob said voicing her thoughts. "But, think about that girl you like. Whatsher name, Blake. And that wonderful Captian gold. And your sister Yang." he said with a grin.

Ruby glared at him furious. He knew who her sister was. "There we go." He said grabbing her heart. "I think your getting close to the right answer. Lets have one more thing this sesion."

Ruby hung alone in the dark staring emptily out into it. Dr. Bob was gone now. He had pulled her apart leaving bits and pieces of her all around the room. Interestingly enough halfway though the pain had vanished along with her screaming and the tears. It was like a switch being thrown in her head.

she knew the answer to his question now. It was quiet now so quiet. She slowly twisted and flexed every joint in her body starting with her toes until they all popped. She felt better now. So much better. She looked around searching for samuel, he should be showing up soon. But he never did. She shrugged and closed her eyes. Leting sleep take her.

The door opened and she opened her eyes watching Dr. Bob walk into the room and stood in front of her.

"Good your up. Lets begin, what do you want?" he asked her.

Ruby stared at him before speaking. "I want to kill you."

He blinked surprised and started to clap. "Congratulations. You figured it out." he said smiling he pulled out a remote and pushed a button before putting it back.

"What's that?" she asked him.

"I was letting Adam know that our time was over." he explained

She stared at him flatly. "What was the point of this?" she questioned him.

"You were afraid to kill because of how it would make you feel, but i don't think you'll have that problem now."

"are you going to let me go?" Ruby asked him. He smiled and nodded once.

"Just know that my sembalce has another part. If you kill me, all the pain i inflicted on you will return ten fold. Call it a way to protect myself." He chuckled.

Ruby nodded. "release me." she stated. He undid the manacles around her ankles then wrists and she dropped to floor landing on her feet. She rubbed the wounds on her wrists.

"Go through that door, some clothes are waiting on you." The doctor said. Ruby's image blurred and rose petals floated in the air around them. Dr. Bob's face contored in confusion. He shouldn't be feeling this pain.

"I told you what i wanted." Ruby said her voice flat and emotionless. Her hands were covered in blood, his blood, in one hand was a bloody scalpel and the other was his heart.

"So pretty." he mummbled and fell to his knees as blood spilt from the hole in his chest and fell over at her feet blood seaped out forming a pool around her feet.

"he lied." she said dropping the scaple and his heart on the floor and walked to the door the doctor pointed out leaving bloody foot prints on the floor. She grabbed a appron hanging by the door and cleaned her hands on it before she opened the door and went it.

It was brightly lit. With a door on the wall to her right and one on her left. In the center of the room was a table with some items on it. Her hood was there with a pile of her clothes. And Creasent Rose

She got dressed and pulled her hood on enjoying the feeling of wearing it, she hadn't realized how much she missed it. She placed Creasent Rose in the sheath on her lower back. And saaw her fake horns. She thought about leaving them. But only Adam knew what she was now, so she put them back on

She noticed a mask on the table it was grim mask but it looked like a human skull. Beside it was a note. She raised her eyebrow and picked up the slip of paper it was covered in elegent wriitng.

"Forgive me for what you've endured. But you needed to learn and be punshed for putting my partner in danger. I'll give you a choice. You can leave this place just walk out the door on the left. No one will come after you or your family. Or you can put on the mask and walk through the right door and join us for real this time."

Signed Adam Tarus

Ruby cruppled the note and tossed it behind her. She had already made up her mind.

Adam stood out side the door waiting, it had been thirty minutes already. He pushed himself off the wall and started to walk away. "I guess she decided to leave." he said to himself. The door behind him opened up and he stoped and turned around. Ruby was walking towards him she was wearing the mask.

A grin stretched across his face. "Glad to see you've joined us."

Ruby stopped beside him and looked up at him.

Adam's eyes narrowed. _'Why do i get this uneasy feeling from her now?'_ he thought.

"Theres a mess in the room you left me in. Just know, if you try that shit again, i'll do the same to you." she said emotionlessly as she started walking away.

Adam watched as the girl walked away, she was definaly diffrent now. But what did she mean. He walked over to the door to that room and opened it.

"Son of a bitch." he breathed.

Blake lay alone in the ifirmary bed, she stared at the ceiling bored, she had already finished the book she had been reading and that was the only thing that had been keeping her thoughts at bay.

 _'Did Ruby really kiss me?'_ she wondered everything that had happened a couple of days ago was fuzzy she couldn't really remember, and speaking of that she hadn't seen Ruby since that day actually no one but doctors had been by to see her.

The door slowly creaked open and Blake turned her head away from it. "Im not hungry so just leave." She grumbled.

"Aww, but i just got here." Ruby pouted. "Ruby!" Blake exclaimed whipping her head around fast enough to agitate her wound making her wince in pain.

"Easy, watch your wound." Ruby warned walking to Blake's bed side and sat in the chair that was still there.

"Where have you been?" Blake hissed. "You've left me here all alone."

"I'm sorry, Adam sent me on a mission." The lie fell off Ruby's lips easily she couldn't let Blake know what had happened to her.

"I was worried that you had left me here alone." Blake said studying the younger girls face, she seemed paler her skin more taunt on her face, and her eyes had changed, something was diffrent now. She felt Ruby's fingers wrap around her hand and lift it.

She blushed as Ruby pressed her lips to the back of her hand. "I will never leave you." Ruby swore.

 _ **Well say goodbye to the sweet innocent Ruby for awhlie that was a rough bit to write. Next will be a time skip. Remember to comment your thoughts. Im off to watch anime and then sleep.**_


	20. Chapter 20

Gold sat in his large high backed chair, the air in the room was heavy with the thick smoke coming from the lit cigar laying in a ash tray, steadily burning leaving behind a cylinder of greyish white ash.

Methodically he drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. Things were not going his way. Agent Red hadn't checked in in two weeks and Yellow had been breathing down his neck. They couldn't have blown her cover could they?

He had sent her in there hidden as a Faunus, it was so simple he knew they would have figured out she was an agent and would convince her to switch sides and be a double agent. So that in itself would be her cover. Let the white fang think they had a double agent but in reality she was a triple agent.

The computer monitor in front of him flickered on, Agent Red's name was flashing.

"About time." Gold mumbled tapping the enter key.

"Agent Red your overdue." he said aloud. There was no reply. "Are you there Red?"

"This is goodbye." the girl spoke her voice was flat. The skin around Gold's eyes tightened. "What is this?" he asked waiting for a reply. "Agent!" he snapped when she didn't answer.

"When atlas the wolves arrive to claim, beware the fallen snow." she said warning in her voice.

"What are you talking about."

"Don't forget that, because I see it now."

"Ruby..."

"Shh, Go back to sleep Samuel."

"Samuel?" he reconised it as one of the names of the soldiers that had been murdered. But why was Ruby talking to him?" Ruby are you OK, What happened?"

"I saw it..." the girl's voice trailed off.

"Saw what?"

"My heart, I held it..." her words vanished into the sound of a speaker screeching then the connection vanished completely.

Gold sat in the silence in the room. He slammed his fist on the arm of the chair. He had been out played.

Ruby exhaled and dropped the needle on the edge of the sink it rolled until it rested against her mask that she had left there. Destroying her communicator had been easy. Just a quick jab with the piece of metal break the small piece of equipment. She pinched the bridge of her nose trying to get rid of Samuel's voice in her head, she grabbed her mask and turned walking across the small bathroom floor and opened the door leading into her room.

"You Ok?" Blake asked from where she was laying on Ruby's bed. Ruby smiled at her. "Yeah I'm fine my shoulder hurts a bit but it'll be OK." She responded, gently rolling her hurt shoulder as she walked across the floor over to the bed. Ever since they had released Blake from the infirmary stating her lung was healed enough that she didn't need constant medical watch, she had been staying with Ruby since the wound she was dealt had done so much damage she need help with simple things.

 _'It's your fault she got hurt.'_ Samuel stated blandly in her head. Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose harder, and squeezed her eyes closed.

"Are you sure?" Blake asked, "You've been doing that a lot these past few weeks and you've never done it before."

Ruby let go of her nose and opened her eyes and walked around to her side of the bed placing her mask on the night stand.

"I'm fine, I didn't realize you paid so much attention to me before." Ruby smirked wanting to tease her a little, it worked, Blake's face turned a shade of deep red and she looked away. "I'm just observant." she huffed making Ruby giggle a little as she lay down on her stomach resting her head on her pillow. She had just got back from a mission for Adam a short while ago leaving Blake with some grunt outside the door if she needed anything.

It hadn't been that tough of a mission, just ending the life of some politician. Her nose still burned with the scent of gunpowder and she had added another ghost to haunt her. Now she just wanted to sleep.

She felt a timid hand rest on the small of her back and she opened one eye looking out over the pillow at Blake who was watching her face. "Are you alright?" She asked Blake. She couldn't read the look on her face. Was it worry, disappointment, regret? Did she not want to be with her? Ruby's hand gripped the sheet tightly as her stomach tightened, if that was it she didn't know what she would do.

"I'm worried about you." she said softly moving her hand to cover Ruby's that was clutching the sheet, she felt it relax beneath her palm.

"Ever since they gave you your mask you've been changing, There's something different in your eyes now." Blake said softly her Amber eyes searching Ruby's visible eye.

Ruby closed her eye not wanting her to see what was missing. "I guess I'm just getting use to things." She lied.

"Don't change to much, once we get the chance we should leave." Blake said softly only loud enough for the girl next to her to hear. Ruby's eyes snapped open and she lifted her face off the pillow, propping her self up with her good arm. "I thought you didn't want to leave?" she asked her cautiously if Blake wanted to leave that made things a lot easier.

"I nearly died, and for what, a future where my people are branded as evil?" Blake said shaking her head. " I want out."

Ruby smiled. "I'll find us away." Gold wouldn't work, there's no way he would let Blake go since she was in the White Fang, she had thought about that before cutting ties with him. She would have to find her own way. "But until then we have to play their game." she warned. Blake nodded her eyes flicking briefly down to Ruby's lips before returning to her eyes, a blush beginning to appear on her face.

Ruby felt herself smile. While she found it hard to read Blake some things she could easily read. She pushed herself forward on her hands and closed her eyes as she gently pressed her lips to Blake's, she couldn't get to into it since she was still hurt, but even this small kiss felt perfect, felt right, like everything was fine. _**'Liar!'**_ Samuel screamed in her head Ruby recoiled away from Blake so fast that rose petals appeared in the air as she gripped the bridge of her nose. _'No!"_ she growled in her head.

 _ **'She doesn't know what you are!'**_

 __"Ruby!"

 _'Shut up!'_

 _ **'Tell her then!'**_

 __ _'I said shut up!'_

 _ **'Liar,'**_

 __ _'Shut up!'_

 _ **'Deceiver,'**_

 __ _'Shut up!'_

 _ **'Killer,'**_

 __ _'Shut up!'_

 _ **'Human,'**_

 __ _'Shut up!'_

"RUBY!"

 _ **'MONSTER!'**_

 __ _'I said SHUT UP!'_

She tore her eyes open she was on the edge of the bed on her knees clutching her head in her hands her body shaking violently she could feel arms around her. She looked up and could see Blake's face a mixture of pain, fear, and worry.

"What are you doing." Ruby gasped her heart slamming in her chest and her stomach felt sick. "Your hurt lay back down."

"What, What the hell is wrong Ruby you've been like this for five minutes! You scared the shit out of me!" Blake exclaimed not letting Ruby go. "It was a headache, a bad one." She mumbled moving her hands from her head and rested them around Blake's waist, the sick feeling growing in her stomach. A lie.

She felt Blake loosen her hold on her and she wanted to scream no, she wanted those arms around her to hold her together.

"You should go to the infirmary." Blake said softly. Ruby shook her head, "It's fine, I've been getting them all my life." More lies, when did it become so easy.

"I just need to sleep." she stated as her breathing began to even out.

Blake relented letting go of Ruby. "If you insist, but next time it happens I'll drag you there myself." she grumbled. Making Ruby smile, she pressed a chaste kiss to the black haired girls lips before helping her lay back down then laying down herself and closed her eyes. She fell asleep with the sick feeling growing in her stomach.

Her dreams were filled with ghosts and darkness, of pain and chains, overlain with her own voice raw from screaming singing. But then something warm engulfed her and sweet nothingness took her.

Blake had noticed in the days she had been staying with Ruby that Ruby cried in her sleep and mumbled names. She didn't know most of them. Dr. Bob, Steven, Clarence, Yang, and the one she did know, Samuel. Where these people she had killed?

When it got bad she would hold the younger girl and her tears would stop. Even now as she held Ruby in her arms ignoring the throbbing the pain in her chest Ruby cried. Even though she said she was getting use to it she obviously wasn't but Blake wouldn't let her know she cried.

The door opened and Adam stuck his head in. "Blake, you got a second?" Blake looked back at the door. "Nows not a good time Adam." she stated not letting go of Ruby.

"It'll be quick." he said and she sighed relenting.

Ruby's eyes snapped open and she rolled over onto her back. "Sleep well?" Blake asked. Ruby stretched her arms into the air ignoring the pain in her shoulder. "Good enough." She mumbled looking at Blake she was reading a book with a blank silver cover.

"Adam came by while you were asleep." she said turning the page. Ruby's face turned stiff and cold, her eyes tight and her lips a thin line. She recovered quickly thankful that Blake was reading, she wouldn't have seen her mask fall.

"What he want?" Ruby questioned as she sat up in bed. Blake closed the book and set in on her nightstand before looking Ruby in the eyes. Ruby's body tightened. She didn't like the look in Blake's eyes, had Adam told her what she was? Fear started to grow in her and the sick feeling returned.

'He told me it was decied that everything that had happened was putting to much stress on your mind and they gave you an out of the White Fang, fearing that your mind might break or some shit like that." Blake blurted out.

Ruby relaxed glad it wasn't what she thought it was, but why would Adam tell Blake this. "I'm fine Blake I'm not crazy, or going crazy if that's what your worried about." Ruby comforted her. "Why didn't you leave?" Blake asked her ears twitching.

"What?" Ruby asked confused.

"They gave you an out, a way to be free of this and you didn't take it!" Blake yelled at her. Ruby leaned back with a sigh, "I couldn't leave you here alone." Ruby explained.

"You should have left, I'm not worth staying for." she mumbled and looked away Ruby moved closer and carefully hugged her pushing her face in Blake's neck breathing in her scent. _'I'm not worth staying with.'_ she thought.


	21. Chapter 21

A ceiling fan swung in a small circle over head, faster then the blades themselves were turning circulating the air in the old boxing gym. A TV attached to the wall was on the news channel showing the weather.

The gym was empty alone from Yang who was sending blow after blow into a punching bag that was more duck tape then anything else. The anger on her face was apparent, it had been two months since the message Ruby had left before going dark, no attempts to contact her worked so far.

After she had heard the message of Ruby speaking nonsese and giberish she had wanted to kill Gold. This was all his fault. She swung her fists harder and faster pounding the punching bag, ignoring the stinging pain in her knuckles she swung hard knocking it swinging away from her. sand spilling onto the floor in various places. It arched back towards her and she punched it with all her might letting out a scream voicing the anger in her heart. The bag exploded sending sand and duck tape everywhere.

"Fuck!" She exclaimed panting, looking around at the mess she had made. Knowing that she was going to have to clean it made her even madder.

"...On to Captain Mitchell with news on the growing White Fang movement on Atlas." the voice of Lisa Lavender said from the T.V.

Yang turned and looked at it. On screen was a police man in his late forties. "The lower quadrent of Atlas has fallen to the large forces of White Fang and Grimm they brought with them. But thanks to the help of the huntsmen the police and atlas's millatry the middle quadrant is holding strong. They have also issued a man hunt on Three white fang members. A high ranking member named Adam Tarus." his photo apeared on the screen. "And his two accomplices whos name's haven't been stated yet but go by the names. Black Death." A photo of girl with cat ears and long black hair replaced Adam's. She wore all black with a white grim mask over the top half of the girls face. "Both her and Adam are wanted dead or alive and finally The Crimson Reaper. Wanted dead."

Yang felt like she had been hit in the stomach as they posted the photo. Her legs trembled slightly as she stared. It was her. Ruby took up the screen her cloak, which she kept imaculent since it reminded her of Summer, was tattered and the hood was pulled up. Over her face was a human skull.

The screen changed back to Lisa. "Thank you Captain Mitchell." she said. "Now on to the weather..." She paused putting her hand over her ear piece as if to hear something better. "What?" she hissed. "Now?" she looked up the camera looking a little stunned. "The Middle quadrent is being pushed back, the white fang are surging fowards, were going live with Fushia on the scene." the image faded out to black and you could hear sounds of fighting, gun fire screams and roars of grim and the sound of an airships engine.

Yang tightned her hands into fists as she stared. "Wheres the video, get it up!" a woman was shouting near the camera and then the picture came on it was a veiw from an airship, the camera was showing a top of a high building with several people on it. Below fire and black smoke was mixed with white snow along with damaged buildings that where one pristine.

"Zoom in." Fushia ordered and the camera zoomed in on the building top. Several members of the White Fang where standing on the snow covered building top planting their flag on a pole that use to have Atlas's on it. In front of them was Adam, his hands on his hips as he stood at the edge of the building looking down on carnage below. Standing beside him was the cat Faunas called Black Death, and on sitting on the edge of the building was her sister. She was aiming somewhere with Cresent Rose and firing before moving a bit and firing again.

This was Ruby Yang had never seen her miss a target. So every shot she fired some one was dying.

"Please stop." she whispered her voice frail in the empty room. This was to much to watch. Her younger sister had dreamed of being a hero just like in the stories but there she was killing those she wanted to protect. Tears rolled down Yang's face. She shouldn't have ever got her in with Gold.

"This is odviously a way to boost morral and insult the millatary." Fushia was saying off camera.

But Yang wasn't listening she was was staring at her sister wincing everytime the girl's body jerked with recoil.

But she stopped, rested Cresent Rose on the roof beside her and looked up directly at the camera. She lifted her hands and slammed her fists together.

A chill ran down Yang's spine, it was message just for her. Ruby's words from the final transmission echoed in her head as the camera zoomed out and the airship turned away before the camera turned off it showed the Shcnee company in the distantace its logo bold and blue and the Tv cut to Lisa. But Yang was heading out the door. She had to get to Gold, her sister wasn't speaking nonsense, it was a warning. "When _**ATLAS**_ the wolves come to claim beware the falling snow."

Her sister wasn't gone yet and she had a chance to save her.


	22. Chapter 22

* Well well well. these past 21 chapters i've been writing as i go with zero planning . but now i know how i want this to end so ill be posting chapters faster. oh and whats this I'm finally bringing in a new key character this chapter. well on with chapter 22. read it comment and tell me what you think*

High in the air Yang sat in the back of a small military grade airship. She shifted her weight on the thin bench and stretched her legs. She felt strange wearing the military armor but Captain Gold had insisted on her wearing it.

"I dont like the idea of you going to much, but if your right and Ruby does show up then your the only person who can get through to her now." he had said. "But I'm sending some men along, they'll keep an eye on you, but your in charge to some degree."

Yang remembered what he had said and looked around the ship, five men were there, they were silent, serious, professionals. She didn't know how they felt about being ordered around by her but she didn't care she was here to do her job and maybe get her sister.

When Yang had informed Gold about her theory that her sister had left them a message he had agreed to send her, even if it didn't happen they couldn't risk not trying. The family they were going after were the Schnee's after all.

Her sister's warning. 'Beware the falling snow.' The White Fang's movement on atlas, and it was no secret that the White Fang veiwed the Schnee family as enemies.

Gold had looked into the family's where abouts. Mr and Mrs. Schnee where down in Vacuo on buisness to far out of the White Fang's reach for the moment. Winter Schnee was with General Ironwood so she was safe. the son whose name Yang couldn't recall was on school campus.

but the young heiress Weiss Schnee was home. So she had to be the target, so Yang's job was to retrieve her, protect her, and bring her in. And if Ruby showed up. Yang's hands tightened to fists in her lap. She had never fought with her sisterand hoped it wouldn't come to that.

She looked at a clock on the wall that had the estimated time of arrival. It wouldn't be to much longer

"How many times do I have to tell you Miss Weiss, shoulders back," Weiss spun around clenching Myrtenaster, her raiper, in her hand and stomped her foot. "My shoulders are back!" she shouted at her instructor out of frustration.

"Not back far enough, do it again!" the man ordered glaring back at the girl. If he wasn't being paid so well he wouldn't be here dealing with this short tempered, hard headed girl.

Weiss huffed and spun around, her white hair swinging behind her. She took a breath and moved into the stance again, for the hundredth time.

"Good." The instructor said earning a sigh of relief from the girl.

the door of the expansive training hall opened up. She didn't need to turn around to tell that it was the kind butler Winston. No one else was home but her and the people that worked there.

"Young Miss I have some coffee for you if you like." he said pleasantly as he walked across the the flawless marble floor and placed the tray he held onto a small entricate metal table.

"Thank you Winston." She said turning around sliding Myrtenaster into the sheath on her waist. Coffee always made her feel better, and Winston always seemed to know when she needed it. The sound of a airship over head made her pause, she turned and looked through the window that took up the whole wall. Through it she could see the expansive yard and a Vale military airship was touching down.

She arched an eyebrow. "Winston are we expecting someone?" sge called over her shoulder. "No Miss Weiss just the opposite." He informed her as he got closer looking out also. "I'll go and see what this is about." He said with a small bow before heading out of the room.

Weiss watched as the airship's doors opened and a girl around her age stepped out. She was dressed in Vale armor and had a mane of wild yellow hair. She surveyed the area around her as if she was looking for something.

Behind her five men dressed as her stepped out of the plane and the yellow haired girl lifted her hand pointing and saying something and the men hurried forwards in diffrent directions. Weiss narrowed her eyes. What was this about. The yellow haired girl walked forwards towards the house. No, walk wasn't the word. she had a way about her when she moved, her hips and shoulders leaned away from each other susubtly as she strode forwards. Even from here Weiss could fe the confidence that this girl oozed, like she could single handedly beat anyone or thing.

Weiss watched her untill she passed underneath the window out of sight then she turned and headed to the coffee that Winston had left.

Should she give her father a call about this? She picked up the cup by it's delicate handle and sipped the dark liquid, it was strong but a slight sweetness took the edge off, just as she liked it, of course it was, Winston never got it wrong.

No she shouldn't call her father, no one made it on the premises without his say so, therefire he already knew. She would just wait, if it concerned her she would learn about it from Winston.

"I belive I'll take my leave Miss Schnee." Her trainer said with a small bow. Weiss glanced at him as she drank. She had forgotten that he was there.

"Very well." She said and he gave a nodd and left the room leaving her alone to quietly drink her coffee.

After awhile the door opened and Winston slilled in. Before she could ask what was going on he spoke.

"Miss Weiss, Yang Xiao Long is here to see you." He managed to get out before the door was flamboyantly slung open and the yellow haired girl sauntered in.

"Remember to be polite." Gold had told her. So as Yang entered into the hall and saw the heiress standing there she gave a half hearted flawed curtsey. "Miss Schnee," Yang said airily as she straightened.

"Yes?" Weiss said narrowing her eyes at Yang, The girl had no tact at all. "I was sent to collect you." Yang told her.

Weiss took a small step back. "What are you getting at, my father hasn't told me anything about this." She stated.

"Your father okayed this, I'm sure you've noticed the White Fang's movements." Yang told her, trying to rush things along, so far there were no signs of the Fang here and she had stationed her men around the estate as look outs.

"Of course I'm aware!" Weiss snapped.

"We belive they are going to make a move on your life." Yang said, fear breifly shown in Weiss's eyes it was quick but Yang caught it.

"I'm perfectly safe with the security team here." she said crossing her arms.Yang closed her eyes and let out a breath before opening them.

"I'm not playing games with you. Your father agreed to place you with us, so your getting in that airship right fucking now!" Yang shouted at her. she had enough things to deal with besides a bitchy heiress.

Weiss's mouth was agape, no one had cussed at her before. She looked at Winston, but concered with her saftey all he said was."I will ship some luggage to you shortly Miss."

Weiss sighed drinking the rest of her coffee, if her father had set this up there was no use fighting.

"Fine." she said sitting the cup down, Yang sighed in relief and stepped to the side motioning towards the door. Weiss noticed the yellow metal around the girls wrists _'Her weapons?'_ She thought as she walked past catching a scent from the brute of a girl. ' _She smells nice._ '

Yang walked beside the heiress as the headed back through the estate. One room could hold her entire house back in Patch. As they reached the main doors and pushed them open Yang put a hand in front of Wiess stopping her.

"What?" Weiss hissed annoyed. Yang stared out the door her eyes untrusting. "Let me go first." she said walking outside. Something was off.

"I don't take orders from you." Weiss huffed stepping outside behind her. Yang looked around as Weiss walked ahead in front of her. The men she had stationed at the edges of the estate weren't there. ' _Did the move around the corners?_ '

"Rose petals?" Weiss said curiously. Yang's eyes widened and she turned around to see red petals floating around them, Weiss was reaching out to touch one.

"Get down!" Yang yelled lunging forwards, her body collided with Weiss's knocking both of them to the ground, Weiss let out a scream of surpise as she hit the ground withe Yangs weight on top of her. Yang looked up to see Ruby appear in the air over them Crescent Rose flashing where Weiss's neck had been. she passed over her red cloak stretching behind her, and landed on her feet a short distance away.

"Ruby." Yang breathed as she got to her feet quickly, activating EmberEmber Celia, the metal slid aroud her fists and up her arms as it took the form of gauntlets.

"Oh your good." Ruby chuckled twirling Crescent Rose around her. Her voice sounded diffrent, sinister. She turned as she brought her scythe to rest in one hand behind her back.

"Will you play with me, I think you'll be more fun then those men." she said fresh blood was splattered on the skull mask she wore.

"The Crimson Reaper." Yang heard Weiss whisper from the ground.


	23. Chapter 23

_So I feel like I should explain why I named the butler Winston, It's pretty simple, I just don't care much for the name Klien. (sorry the spellings probally wrong) Whats this, 99 favorites and 159 followers you guys are awesome, I'm glad you like this. well all this is done, so enjoy and I'm going to start chapter two of 'Flying Roses'. If your reading that one prepare for the feels._

Yang let out a slow breath as she stared at her sister, it had been months since she last saw her, months of worry and she was finally in front of her. _'But is she still my sister?'_ The thought wandered into her head as she stared at the girl in red in front of her.

"So tell me, What are soldiers form Vale doing this far into Atlas?" Ruby asked her.

Yang raised an eyebrow confused. "I figured out..." Ruby moved in a blurr swinging Cresent Rose at Yang's head, steel clashed against steel as Yang managed to bring Ember Celia up and stop the tip of the cuved blade.

"Ruby, I don't want to fight you." Yang pleaded pushing Cresent Moon away from her, behind her Weiss was climbing to her feet and she pulled Myrtenaster from it's sheath.

"You're in the way of my target, So either let me kill her, or die!" Ruby stated swinging her scythe at her sister, Yang ignored the pain in her heart and stood her ground blocking each stroke of Cresent Rose, sparks flying as the metal clashed.

"I'm not letting that happen!" Yang yelled firing a round at Ruby, she used her sembalance to dodge it easily.

Yang noticed movement and Weiss stepped up beside her. The blonde looked at her, "Get behind me." Yang ordered as Ruby jumped firing her weapon and using the blast to fly higher.

"She's after me, so I'll help beat her!" Weiss snapped. Yang took her eyes of Ruby for a second to look at Weiss. "She's mine." she growled

Weiss looked into the girls eyes and could see the emotions flicking through it, heartbreak, love, pain, betrayal. _'Just who is she to her.'_ Weiss wondered. "Are you sure?" She asked unsure if this soldier could fight the Reaper.

"Get back, she's coming." Yang said pushing Weiss back as Ruby mixed her sembalance with the power of her gun to fly down so fast she had become a red blur.

As she reached Yang she swung the deadly scythe down hard. Yang caught the shaft with one hand but the force made her arm buckle and the tip of the blade sank through the armor on her shoulder, she could feel the blade brushing her skin.

Ruby wasn't playing, she was really out to kill her Yang realised as she held onto the shaft keeping Ruby suspended in the air not far from Yang's face.

She had been wrong, her heart was shattering as she realized that Ruby was no longer here. And if this Reaper wanted to fight. Yang swung her free hand punching Reaper in the face with everything she had, the mask cracked and her head yanked to the side before coming back to look at Yang who glared back at the silver eyes behind the mask, her own had turned from lilac to red.

"You wanted a fight, you fucking have one!" Yang roared letting go of the scythe and slamming both fists into the girl's body firing Ember Celia into her the force slung the Reaper backwards ripping her sythe from the armor,

The Reaper flipped through the air smoke rising from her charred shirt and she hit the ground and rolled.

Yang ran forwards towards the downed girl, fire rising from her blonde hair. Before the Reaper could get up Yang punched her in the top of the head slaming her face in the dirt and a boot smashed into her mask flipping her onto her back.

Gripping her scythe the Reaper swung it at her body but Yang punched the shaft swatting it away. She knew how to handle scythe weilders, if you could keep them from moving to much and stay close to their body you could easily beat them to a pulp, which is exactly what Yang planned to do.

"Did you forget something?" The Reaper asked with a chuckle and Yang stopped, her fist raised over her little sister.

"Wolves run in packs." The Reaper breathed softly. Yangs eyes widened and she turned around, Weiss was watching them intently but a short distance behind her a black blur was moving fast across the grass towards her like a shadow.

 _'The Black Death.'_ Yang realized as she twisted around and started to run towards Weiss but the Reaper snaked her foot out tripping Yang, she stumbled and fell face first on the ground.

"Behind you Schnee!" Yang shouted in warning as she scrambled away from the curved blade that sunk into the ground near her as the Reaper climbed to her feet.

Weiss turned around lifting Myrtenaster on impulse and blocked the blade from the girl she reconised from the news. Another highly wanted criminal was here for her head. She wondered how many where lurking around.

Yang rolled onto her feet dodging another close swing from the scythe before glancing over to see how Weiss was doing, she was holding her own against the cat faunas pretty well.

Before she could look back a weight hit her hard in the chest even through the armor and knocked the breath out of her as she felt arms being wrapped around her waist and she was lifted off her feet and flown backwards through the air at a inhuman speed before Yang could do anything they had already cleared the expasive yard and entered the thin grove of trees around the property.

The hands around her disapeared and she fell on to the ground and rolled backwards stopping in a crouch and jumped to her feet ready for another onslaught but the Reaper was just standing there a few yards away, her scythe already compacted down and put away.

"This is far enough away." The Reaper stated letting out a heavy sigh. Before Yang could speak the Reaper turned and faced her. "I'm glad you got my message sister."

"Ruby?" Yang questioned as she lowered her fists, had she been wrong, was her sister still there? Underneath that mask of death.

"I don't want to kill her but they know my weakness so I can't hold back." Ruby said holding her hand up in front of her face as if she was inspecting it.

"Sis you don't have to do this, come back with me." Yang pleaded stepping forwards but Ruby looked at her and she froze. "I can't come back my sins are to many." She said looking at the back of her hand.

"Yes you can. The world doesn't know that it's you beneath that mask." Yang reasoned, she wanted her back, so she could keep her safe.

"But I know it's me, I know what I've done, who I've killed. Even now I can see them all around me." Ruby said looking around through her eyes she could see them, ghosts of those she killed slipping through the trees quietly, even walking around Yang as they headed towards her to surround her and choke her.

"Come back, I can help you, we can get through this Ruby!" Yang shouted her hands turning to fists.

Ruby sighed shaking her head. "You still don't get it."

"What don't I get?" Yang asked.

"I'm not Ruby, you can't help me."

Yang's eyes widened, was it true, was this not Ruby. Her eyes searched the girl in front of her, her heighth, her hair, the way she stood, the way she fought, her sembalance, and even her clothes, she reconised the shirt even if it was burnt now. Ruby had bought it last year when they had went shopping together.

But their was a diffrence, the way she moved was all wrong, Ruby bounced when she moved as if she was happy just taking a step, but now her movements were slow, and calm as if a weight was pushing her down. And the way she talked was diffrent, her voice was monotone and she even spoke words diffrently then she did before, as if they had a diffrent accent.

She was Ruby, but she had changed so much in her time with the Fang and she couldn't help but wonder what they did to make her like this.

"Then who are you?" Yang asked, if this was a game, then she would play along. "Ruby made me to protect her after she was torn apart." The Reaper stated.

"What do you mean torn apart!" Yang shouted fear in her voice.

"You can ask her that one day." the Reaper stated turning away from Yang but she froze and placed her hand over her mask.

"She want's to talk to you." The Reaper asked grabbing her mask. "But only for a bit, I must protect her." she breathed looking at Yang and pulled the mask away.

Ruby was crying, tears rolling down her face. "Yang." she hicced between sobs. Yang felt her heart clench, she was there, everything was back, her voice no longer monotone, her sister was here. "Ruby!" Yang cried stepping forwards but Ruby held out her hand. "Stay back!" She screamed making Yang stop.

"Yang..." Ruby breathed out slowly, heartbreakingly, "You have to save me, I've become a monster and I can't stop!"

Before Yang could speak the mask was back on. "There, now you see." The Reaper said all pain and sadness gone from her voice.

"What have you done!" Yang screamed at the Reaper. She cocked her head slightly, "I haven't done a thing, I'm protecting her where you didn't, did you know she calls your name in her sleep." The Reaper leaned her head the other way, "And another thing, that Schnee your suppose to protect...You might want to hurry before Black kills her, or I do, and the only way you can stop me is to beat me."

Yang felt something in her snapp and fire rose out of her hair as she flew forwards. "Yes, Don't hold back or I'll kill you both." She said before Yang's fist slammed into the mask slinging the Reaper backwards through the trees.

And beneath the mask Ruby cried.


	24. Chapter 24

"Oumdamn it!" The curse word floated around the now nearly empty cabin in the air ship. None of the team she had been sent with survived. Drops of blood splattered onto the iron floor. Today had not gone her way at all.

Yang squeezed the bridge of her nose trying to staunch the flow of blood pouring out of it. She took a deep breath reading herself and snapped her nose back straight her eyes watering at the pain.

"That Reaper bitch has one hell of a right hook." Yang groaned earning a chuckle from the white haired girl sitting on the seat next to her.

Strands of her usually perfect hair where floating around her head and she was holding her left arm, the sleeve stained with blood where the Black Death's blade had found a mark after Weiss's aura had depleted.

"At least we're alive." Weiss mumbled clearly shook up from the fight.

"You're welcome for that." Yang grinned around the blood making Weiss roll her eyes. "Sure, though I'm certain I saw that Reaper kicking your ass."

"Oh, foul language from a princess?" Yang asked getting to her feet and steadied herself against the wall till she found her balance on the moving floor.

"I'm not a princess you Oaf." she retorted watching as the blonde headed to the far wall and grabbed a first aid kit before heading back and sitting down beside her again. "Let me see your arm." Yang said as she opened the latches on the kit.

"And let a brute touch it, no thank you." she snapped narrowing her eyes at Yang who rolled her own eyes. "I'm actually medically qualified to deal with that." She informed her, holding out her hand for Weiss's arm who looked at her unsure before letting out a sigh and offered her her arm. "Thank you." Yang said pulling out a pair of scissors and cutting the sleeve the rest of the way off from the cut.

"I liked this shirt." Weiss grumbled.

Yang smiled, gently taking her arm, careful as to not hit the wound.

Weiss watched her, surprised that the other girls touch was gentle on her skin as she looked over the cut.

"It's deep, so you're going to have to have stitches." Yang said and Weiss tensed making Yang look up. "S'matter, you afraid of needles?" she asked winking at her. Weiss's face started to burn and she looked away. "No, I just don't want another scar." she said quickly.

Yang chuckled as she dug in the kit. "I think scars are cool." She said pulling out a spray bottle. "This will sting a bit, but it'll clean out your wound." She said spraying it over the cut.

Weiss winced as the wound started to burn a little. "Of course you think scars are cool you're a soldier."

Yang shook her head as she put the bottle away. "No, I think they show where we've been and what we've done, that's not necessarily a bad thing." she held up her right hand showing the back of her hand, a thin scar was between her pinky finger and ring. "I got this when I was a kid. My sister and I use to run through the house with are arms wide like we where airships, my hand caught a nail in the hallway, it hurt but now I'll never forget that memory." Yang said fondly her eyes distant.

She shook her head and pulled out a pack that had a sterilized needle and thread in it and cut it open with the scissors.

"Not all scars have such good memories." Weiss said looking away as Yang pulled the torn skin on her arm together and winced as Yang stared to stitch it together.

"I have a question." Weiss stated trying to keep her mind off her arm.

"Mhmm?" Yang mumbled concentrating on her work.

"In the fight you called the Reaper, Ruby."

Yang stopped for a second before continuing to stitch her wound. "Do you know her?" Weiss pressed. Yang stayed silent for a time before speaking. "No, I thought she was some one I've been looking for, I was wrong." she responded. But something in her voice told Weiss she wasn't telling the truth but she didn't know this girl well enough to push her for information, especially since she was sewing her up.

They stayed in silence as Yang finished up. "There you go." She said cutting the excess thread and Weiss looked at her arm, it didn't look to bad.

"This is to prevent infection." Yang said spraying another bottle over it before she wrapped it in a bandage.

"Thanks." Weiss muttered as Yang put the stuff back in the kit and closed it. "No problem." she responded wiping her face with a wet towel from the kit to clear the blood away and continued to try to keep her nose from bleeding.

The rest of the trip was in silence as they flew back to Vale.

Once the air ship touched down on the top of the building she was based at the door slid open and Captain Gold was standing on the landing platform waiting on them with a few other soldiers.

He motioned for the two girls to follow him as he headed off the roof. "Captain, about the men you sent with me." Yang said her voice sounding off because of the swelling in her nose.

"We've already picked up their bodies."

"That's not it, It's my fault they died." Yang stated, Gold looked over his shoulder at her. "No, It's the person who killed them fault, no one else's." He said, Yang looked away unable to keep eye contact. Weiss looked at the two of them suspiciously.

"It's good to have you with us Miss Schnee." Gold said holding a door open that led inside the building. "Not for me it's not." she huffed holding her arm as she walked in followed by Yang then Gold.

"You were wounded?" He asked as they headed down the spiral staircase. "It's just a scratch." Weiss said waving it off.

"My apologizes Yang should have done a better job at protecting you." Gold stated Weiss looked back to see a scowl on Yang's face. "I'm alive I think she did her job fine, Since we were against the Crimson Reaper and the Black Death." Weiss said not missing the pointed look Gold gave the back of Yang's head.

"Oh really?" he asked.

Yang nodded. "I was unable to capture either of them, once the Reaper's aura was depleted they fled." Yang explained.

"We'll discuss that later." He stated as they walked into a hallway. "My office is the second on the right."

Once inside he sat in his high backed chair while Weiss and Yang stood in front of his desk. "Now I suppose we should talk about where Miss Schnee will be staying." Gold said leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers.

"Yang, she'll be staying in your living area."

"What!" Yang yelled slamming her hands on the desk between them and leaned forwards. Gold stared at her unfazed.

"Is that a problem?" He asked.

" I don't have time to babysit!" she growled.

"Excuse me?" Weiss asked raising a eyebrow at Yang but she ignored the heiress.

"Well that wound you got looks pretty bad Yang, I think a week on leave will let it heal nicely." Gold said with a thin smile. Yang's eyes widened she couldn't believe he was doing this, he just didn't want her around for some reason.

"It's a fucking broken nose!" She yelled glaring at the man. "Your dismissed." He said with a wave of his hand and spun his chair around to show he was done talking.

Yang exhaled and spun around stalking out with Weiss following behind her.

Blake supported Ruby as they trudged through the snow as they walked from the airship landing area to the hotel that the White Fang was using as a base. Ruby's legs trembled and she would have fell If Blake wasn't holding her up. "Are you Ok?" Blake said, her breath hot on Ruby's ear. "Yeah, she just hits really hard." She chuckled then winced at the pain in her ribs, she was sure that Yang's last hit had either bruised them or broke them.

"Adam won't be happy." Blake mumbled as they headed up the stairs, on either side of the door were grunts standing guard.

"Screw Adam, we weren't expecting Vale soldiers." Ruby grumbled, her breath clouding around her face as a grunt held the door open and the two made their way through welcoming the warmth that was in the building. Ruby let out a sigh, Atlas was way to cold for her.

Adam was already in the expensive looking lobby waiting on them. He looked them over as Blake helped Ruby over to him. "Problems?" He asked.

Blake nodded, " For some reason Vale soldiers were there." She said. Adam cocked his head, "Interesting, did you do it?" He questioned the girl being held up by his old partner.

"No, our aura's ran out so we had to escape." Ruby stated.

"I ordered you to kill the girl!" Adam snapped. Ruby rolled her eyes, "I know but our aura's were done for." she repeated herself.

"You should have kept going till she was dead!" He yelled at Ruby. "I'm not dying for you." She snapped back.

Blake looked at her girlfriend concerned. "Ruby." She warned softly, Adam was a man you didn't anger.

"I think your forgetting your place." He bit making Ruby chuckle dryly. "No, _you_ are forgetting my place." she retorted. "Now I'm going to my room." She said motioning for Blake to help her and they headed around Adam who glared at them as they made their way to the elevator.

"Whats with you?" Blake questioned as the metal doors slid closed and she hit the room number for the floor they were staying on.

"Adam needs to understand that I am not going to die for him or the White Fang." Ruby stated leaning against the wall as the elevator started upwards.

"Still you shouldn't piss him off." Blake warned crossing her arms as she leaned against the wall beside Ruby.

"He shouldn't piss me off." She retorted with a huff. "You've changed." Blake said softly and Ruby looked at her.

"Is that a bad thing?" Ruby questioned looking at the dark haired girl. "No." she mused. "I was just wondering where the soft innocent Ruby had gone."

Ruby sighed looking at the number of floors tick as they moved upwards, this was a really slow elevator. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "After I almost lost you, I realized I could no longer afford to be the way I was."

"That wasn't your fault, just don't get to dark on me." Blake said reaching out and grabbed the hand Ruby had on the handrail that ran around the elevator.

"What makes you think I'm dark?" Ruby smiled at her as she dropped the hand pinching her nose and interlaced her fingers with Blake's.

"It just seems that when you put on your mask you become someone else, and to be honest your a little scary."

Ruby blinked surprised, she had never meant to scare Blake. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to intimidate the enemy so maybe they would run instead of fighting." She explained with a grin, "I guess it didn't work, since we were the one's that ran."

Blake smiled back but a question in her head resurfaced as the elevator dinged and the door slid open. "Something's been bugging me." Blake said as she pulled Ruby's body close to her so she could help her walk.

"What is it?" The girl asked as they headed down the deep red carpeted hallway towards their shared room.

"That soldier, how did she know your name?" Blake asked and felt Ruby's body grow tense. "She's a old friend, I guess she reconized my semblance." Ruby explained her body relaxing as Blake nodded.

"Is she the reason we ran?" Blake questioned watching Ruby's face. She nodded as they reached their room and Blake opened the door and turned the lights on as she helped Ruby to the bed and set her down.

"It's Ok, I wont tell Adam." she said to Ruby in understanding and watched as relief filled her face.

"Thanks." Ruby smiled kindly at her.

"Now get your shirt off so I can bind your ribs." Blake ordered as she got up and headed into the bath room to get the first aid kit.

Ruby chuckled facing away from the bathroom and undid her hood and cloak laying it on the bed beside her before easing of her shirt with a hiss and inspected the damage. The skin was already bruising but on top of that the skin was also slightly burnt. _'Damn that Ember Ceila.'_ She thought as she heard Blake enter the room.

"Ruby?" Blake questioned and Ruby's blood froze, she had forgot about her back.

"What is this?" Blake asked, her voice shaking as she looked at her girlfriend's bare back for the first time, the scars that ran down her skin were to brutal for words.

"I'm sorry you shouldn't have seen this." Ruby's voice was tight as she reached for her hood but Blake moved quick across the room and climbed onto the bed behind her, placing her hands on Ruby's back making her jump slightly.

"What happened?" she breathed slightly moving her hands across the damaged skin as if her touch could heal it.

"It happened a long time ago." Ruby spoke softly her hands gripping the bed cover. She couldn't tell Blake the truth, that Adam had done it.

She could feel Blake's tears splashing onto her skin but she was frozen unable to turn around.

Blake cried, her girlfriend's words the final straw that broke the camel's back. It was a skill that she had trained a long time to get, but her ears could hear many things, including the slight tremors in someones voice when they told lies.


	25. Chapter 25

_Hey guy's, I haven't forgotten about this story and I hope you haven't either, I lost my way of posting for awhile there but I'm back now and I hope I can post steady updates. It's been so long since I wrote on this so I hope the characters still come across ok. Let me know how this chapter sounds if you will and remember your comments motivate me to write faster._

The heavy iron door screamed on its unoiled hinges as it was pushed open, Ruby squinted against the bright sun that was wreathed in coal black smoke that gave the sky a sinister color. It had been a week since she had last saw the sky but it had been worse then this then.

She rolled her shoulders the stark white clothes itching her body, She took the first step out side, the chains rattling as they pulled at her legs, and a old quote surfaced in her head. 'Every step you take is one step closer to your last.' She couldn't remember where she had heard that from but now she wondered how many steps she had left. By the looks of it, about thirty, she reasoned as she stared out into the courtyard where a few posts where set up.

"Move it traitor." A guard growled behind her and gave her a push almost making her stumble, the chain holding her legs was to small and her arms behind her back made it hard to balance but she wouldn't fall, not infront of all those watching her.

She regained her balance and walked forwards her head held high as she headed towards her death.

She reached the first post and the guard knocked her to her knees and hooked her handcuffs to it. She flicked her head to clear her bangs out of her eyes as she looked up at the five atlas soldiers holding rifles at attention. Behind them was a stand filled with angry looking atlas civilans. All here to watch a traitor, a terorist die. And behind them on the horizion was a sea of damaged buildings smoke and fire still rising from their busted iron bodies.

Several airships floated lazily in the distant smokey air

She had done it, she had finished it, but her story would never be told, she knew that this was what waited on her at the end of the road, but she still walked that path because it needed to be done, and now it was all coming to a close.

The Jailer stood next to the soldiers and raised his hand, "Bring out the other one." He ordered. The door opened again and Ruby could hear footsteps and the sounds of chains drawing closer and a body was pushed to the ground agains the post next to her. Ruby glanced over, it was another girl, but she had a bag over her head as the guard chained her to the post.

The guard stood and ripped the bag off of the girls head and Ruby screamed. She wasn't suppose to be here, She lunged against her chains trying to reach her as she smiled kindly at her with tears in her eyes, she screamed because seeing her here hurt worse then the scars on her body, it hurt worse then anything the doctor had done to her, and worse then the bullets that ended her life.

"I will never leave your side again."

Ruby's eyes snapped open as Blake shook her awake. She panted looking around her wildly as she tried to crawl away, her hands gripping franticly at the sheets. but Blake's hands held her in place as she sat ontop of her to keep her from trashing around. "Shhh." Blake breathed helping to ease Ruby's nerves. "It was just a dream."

Ruby panted. Was it, she couldn't remember, but here lately she had been waking up like this in the middle of the night.

"You've been having nightmare's alot lately." Blake said her voice giving life to Ruby's thoughts in the dark air of their room.

Ruby nodded her head against Blake's chest not trusting her voice as Blake rolled off her and laid beside her pulling Ruby into her arms. Ruby latched onto her closing her eyes as she listened to Blake's heartbeat as her own beat quickly in her chest.

"Can you remember what it was about?" Blake asked softly as she ran her hair through Rubys hair.

"No, It dissapears whenever I wake up." Ruby said, as her breathing slowly returning to normal.

"Do you need some water?" Blake asked but Ruby shook her head. "Let me just stay like this." She requested.

"Of course." Blake agreed and in the silence of the room she held her running her fingers slowly through her hair. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hours but neither of them spoke or slept. They just lay there in holding each other, the bed they shared was a like their own world, a world without pain or death. Without fear and worry.

"I want to go back there." Ruby said breaking the silence as the sun broke the horizion. "Go where?" Blake murrmered sleeply.

" Mare sidera." Ruby said making Blake smile. "That would be nice." She missed her sea of stars. So much had happened in the past few months that it felt like years since she had been there.

Blake leaned up suddenly and put her face over Ruby's, Blake's hair hung down like a curtain on either side of Ruby's head creating a curtain making it so that Ruby only saw her.

"Remember how a while back you asked me if I would escape with you?" Blake asked her.

"Yeah I remember." Ruby said with a smile and reached up brushing Blake's hair behind her ear.

"Lets go, right now, the White fang has changed, I don't like the violence. Lets run away." She said excitedly.

Ruby smiled leaning up to press her lips to Blake's, She loved the way her lips felt, so warm and full of love.

There was a knock on the door and they seperated, much to Ruby's disapointment, Blake fell beside her on the bed as a voice spoke.

"Miss Ruby?" The man called to her.

"Yes." Ruby answered already sitting up and stretching "Adam wants to see you."

"I'll be there soon." She responded standing up and getting dressed as Blake watched her back.

Blake waited until the man's footsteps had faded. "What's your answer?" Blake asked as Ruby laced up her boots.

Ruby grabbed her cloak and swung it around her and fastened it as she sighed. "I can't go, There's nowhere for me to run to." Ruby stated as she headed towards the door.

"Beside's I owe it to those I killed to see this through." She said softly as she walked out the door.


	26. Chapter 26

_Alrighty then my beautiful readers I'm back with a new chapter, thank you so much for your follows and your favorites and excepically thank you for your comments. I'm so glad your loving this story. It means more to me then you know. So thank you. Well on with story. Enjoy._

The alarm clock beeped unceasingly, declaring the early time to the girl that was lying awake in a bed that didn't belong to her. Weiss stared up at the drab ceiling and let out a sigh as she sat up and reached over and turned off the alarm clock that balanced on a old bar stool beside the bed which was just a twin mattress ontop of boxsprings. The bedframe was busted and leaned against the wall in a corner with forgotten clothes nearly covering it from sight.

She had been here two weeks already, and dispite the constant calls to her father, he insisted that she stay there, hidden from the White Fang. He and Mother were going to stay out of Atlas until the whole White Fang uprising was taken care of. Even Whitley had been removed from the city.

Wiess swung her legs out from under the old quilt that covered the bed and as soon as her feet hit the hard floor she felt her lip curl in disqust, she still wasn't use to living like this, and she doubted she ever would.

She stood smoothing out her nightie as she walked out of the open door, the lower hinge had been busted from the wall so the door hung at an angle so that it rested on the floor and didn't close easily. Apparently Yang had been very rough with her sleeping quarters in the past.

The bedroom led imediatly into the small kitchen slash sitting area where Yang slept on a old couch. Weiss stopped walking, The large blonde was awake, she stood in the center of the sitting area wearing shorts that hugged her muscled thighs and a sports bra that showed her abs. She was shadowboxing with weights strapped to her arms and legs. From the sheen of sweat that covered her toned body Weiss could tell she had been at it for awhile.

"Staring is rude Princess." Yang stated without turning around, she could feel the other girl's eyes on her.

"Coffee." Weiss squeaked hurrying behind the wall that seperated the two rooms. She cursed herself for staring but there was something about the brute she thought asshe went to the white coffee maker that sat on the bare counter beside the sink and grabbed the pot, already full and waiting on her. She stood on her tip toes reaching up and grabbed one of the two mismatched mugs in the other wise empty cabnet and procedded to pour it into the blue mug. She hesitated for a second then grabbed the second one in the cabnet, it was white and in black letters said, "Coffee or death, your choice."

She filled it three fourths of the way full before replacing the pot and going to the small refrigerator pushing last nights takeout to the side she grabbed the bottle of creamer and poured it into the mug filling it the rest of the way beforeadding a splash to hers then she replaced the creamer and shut the door. She took a sip of her coffee, enjoying the hot liquid and sighed as the bitter drink filled her senses and she could feel the caffeine take affect.

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and Yang brushed against her as she reached for the other mug, "Is this for me?" Yang asked as Weiss conciously stepped backwards away from her.

Weiss just nodded as she took another sip from her coffee.

Yang drank from her mug and let out a moan, "Just know," She said pointing at Weiss. "The best way to my heart is good coffee early in th morning."

"Shut up." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm serious. And don't think I haven't seen how you look at me." Yang said waggling her eyebrows.

Weiss felt her face heat up. "Go take a shower, you meet with Gold today." She snapped at the large blonde.

"Do you wanna join, we'll save water." Yang said taking another drink of coffee and watched as the heiress turned even redder, It was fun teasing her.

"Go you brute!" Weiss yelled turning away as Yang laughed and walked up the hallway.

AN/ _Sorry this chapters so short._


	27. author's note

my laptop died (r.i.p) so it will be a bit till i update. sorry


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